In India, we have right to property and inheritance. The successors have to inherit the property of their predecessors. Consequently, land has to be sub-divided among the successors after the death of the predecessor. Due to growth of population, land has to be split into various small holdings. Further, each of the sons wil1 want to share a part of each plot of land that the father has left. This has led to fragmentation of holdings. Thus the lands were divided into small patches and scattered over a large area. The poor farmers have to lose considerable amount of bullock and human energy moving from one plot of land to another. Further, it is impossible to adopt modern scientific cultivation in tiny pieces of land. Modern machinery like tractors, pump sets cannot be applied to those small pieces.

The division of agricultural households also increases the cost of cultivation as each of the households has to maintain bul1ocks, equipment and spend more times for supervision of scattered plots. Al1 these have adversely affected our agricultural productivity. Therefore, the Govt. has tried to consolidate the holding through laws. Consolidation of holding aims at bringing together the smal1 scattered pieces of land into compact units. This wil1 help in saving bullock and human energy and lowering operational cost of cultivation. Some of the state Govts. have started consolidation work since long.

However, only one thirds of the total cultivable land have been so far consolidated. The consolidation work has been ful1y completed in Punjab and Haryana. The progress is satisfactory in U.P., Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and J&K. The work is underway in Orissa and M.P. The programme is yet to be started in many states. In Orissa the consolidation Act was passed in 1972 and the real consolidation work started in 1974. Areas under major irrigation projects like Hirakud, Mahanadi Delta were given priority in consolidation work. By 1992, consolidation work has been completed for 8.74 lakh hectares of land.