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The average farm in India covers a surface area of 1.5 hectares. This compares to an average surface area of 50 hectares in France (30 times larger) and an average of 200 hectares in the United States (130 times larger). This characteristic is a legacy of the post-independence farm reforms of 1947, which aimed to redistribute land to poor farmers by placing limitations on the size of real estate. Although the Indian government is currently working to encourage farm expansions, which would create more profitable productions units due to economies of scale, real estate nonetheless continues to be divided into even smaller units with each new generation due to customary and succession laws. This fragmentation of farmland is a factor behind the limited use of mechanized farming techniques and prevents the development of a more organized and productive agricultural sector.