Effects on tenure structure thus appear to be the creation of a substantial amount of owner cultivation (accounted, in part, by personal cultivation by former landlords), some strengthening of tenants vis a vis absentee landlords, a substantial amount of evasion, and diminution of the share of tenure arrangements subject to rent controls. Ceilings on holdings were slow in coming about. Much land was distributed by the landowners to relatives and others prior to effective dates and maxima were at levels so high that only a small proportion of holdings were affected. As indicated earlier, the amount of land generated by the ceilings law probably would settle about 200,000 cultivators with the current average holding of 61⁄2 acres. The structure of holdings contains a large number of small holdings. centration Changes in the distribution in the reform period, 1951-61, do suggest a movement toward equality. The con-/ratio, stable between 1951 and 1955, dropped from .67 to .57 between 1955 and 1961. AllIndia figures are extremely gross but are perhaps helpful in indicating general trends. Jha, 1/ in his extensive review of literature pertaining to ceilings, places expert opinion on the side of available facts and concludes that ceilings legislation as implemented will result in only minor changes in operational units but suggests some reduction in size of very large units. Production The objectives of land reform as expressed by the All-India Congress Committee early in the history of the programs clearly hold out an expectation of improved productivity. But land reform is a distributive measure. Measuring the relationship between reform and production is extremely hazardous. Any effect on productivity arises either out of increased capacity of cultivators to finance, create, and employ additional resources, or motivational change in work, consumption, and investment. direct functional relationship between reform measures and production or productivity is unrealistic. Correlations between reforms and production are likely to be spurious. A Although reform measures involve a transfer of claims, interests and values, they are most commonly thought of as transferring physical quantities 1/ JHA, Satish. Indian Land Reform Research Literature: A Critical Appraisal, Ph.D Thesis, Univ. of Illinois, 1967. Ann Arbor Univ., Micro film, 1969. Operational Holdings, Area Operated and Average Size (State-Wise) of land (which in part they do). The productivity effects of land reform are usually reduced to the relation between farm size and productivity. Productivity in land scarce countries probably is best expressed in per acre terms and in these terms land reform has probably had a favorable effect. Generally, under comparable conditions, production per acre is inversely related to farm size except for very small units. 1/ To the 1/ The generalization is supported by several studies in India as reviewed by Jha op. cit. pp. 64-95. Warriner, in review of a number of studies, also concludes that "output per acre on small farms is greater" and, as does Khusro, that "farm business income" per acre is also inversely related to size because of costs of hired labor. "Net farm business income" (after imputing return to family labor) is less on small farms, largely because the family labor supply is fixed and too large to be completely employed. acre extent that land reform redistributes land in favor of smaller farms, output per/ and total production should increase. Production of major crops did increase during the reform period, but the rise was not spectacular. The rela tion of land reform to "green revolution" is discussed in the section on income distribution. For reference only, i.e., no necessary relation to land reform is implied, the following indices (base 1949-50) of production are shown. These indices also show wide variations due largely to weather variation: Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, GOI. |