Landholding Inequality and Farm Income Among Small Farmers in Bardhaman District, West Bengal

Landholding inequality remains a defining structural feature of West Bengal's agrarian economy, and Bardhaman district — though historically the state's principal rice-producing zone — is no exception to this pattern. This paper examines the distribution of operational land holdings and its implications for farm income among small and marginal farmers in Bardhaman district, drawing on data from the Agricultural Census 2015–16 (Government of India), the Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households 2018–19 (NSO, MoSPI), District Statistical Handbooks of Purba Bardhaman, and peer-reviewed studies rooted in official data. The analysis shows that while land reform programmes — notably Operation Barga (1978–85) — redistributed nearly 1,33,739 sharecropper registrations in Bardhaman alone, the average operational holding size remains critically small (below 0.5 ha for marginal farmers), and income from crop production for agricultural households in West Bengal averaged only ₹6,762 per month in 2018–19, well below the national average of ₹10,218. Income inequality across landholding classes is stark: small and marginal cultivators in Purba Bardhaman earned annual incomes of ₹1,79,030–₹2,28,969 compared to ₹2,65,600 for medium-holding households. The paper argues that persistent land fragmentation, low crop profitability, limited credit access, and insufficient non-farm diversification perpetuate income poverty among small farmers, and recommends targeted policy interventions.