Year of publication 2002

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Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

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Pages 60

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Category Technical book

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Series title RAP Publication

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Series number 1020-6221|1014-2789|18194591|0428-9560

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Edition 1

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Synopsis (short abstract) The average size of nearly 80 percent of India’s over 106 million farm holdings in the early 1990s was less than 2 hectares. Covering only 33 percent of the total cultivated land in the country, these farms produced 41 percent of the nation’s food grain harvest – up from their contribution of 28 percent in 1971. This document analyses national farm census data between 1971 and the latest available estimate for 1991 to highlight the growing role of the country’s small farms in national food produ ction. Ironically, smallholder farmers form the bulk of India’s over 200 million hungry and poor people today. This points to the urgent need for reversing the decline in public investment in agriculture, while strengthening agrarian reform, infrastructure and institutions, creating off-farm employment and using size and scale-neutral technologies to boost crop and livestock production on small farms. The authors recommend safety nets as well as government initiatives in the international arena to ensure a fair deal to the country’s small farmers.

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Language English

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