Does Tenure Status Affect the Adoption of Land Productivity Enhancing Practices and Input Intensities? Evidence from Assam Plains in India’s Northeast

Abstract

Using farm level data from Assam plains in Northeast India, the present article examines the question whether tenancy and its various forms influence input intensities in crop production and adoption of land productivity enhancing practices by the farmers. It has been found that the sharecroppers do not make intensive use of land and undersupply labour input. An unanticipated finding which has not been reported in the existing literature in this context is that the fixed rent tenants use chemical fertilizers more intensively compared to even the owner-operators. Excessive application of fertilizers by the fixed rent tenants which has adverse environmental consequences and the Marshallian inefficiency that ensnares the sharecroppers can both be ascribed to some restrictive provisions in the existing tenancy law of the state. Reforms of tenancy regulations for incentivising efficient utilisation of agricultural land have been suggested.