Classification of Small and Marginal Farmers

In India, small and marginal farmers are classified according to the area of agricultural land they operate. The classification uses the size of the operational holding, rather than simply the land legally owned by the farmer.

Landholding-size classification

The Agriculture Census groups operational holdings into size classes. The two smallest classes are marginal and small holdings.

• Marginal farmers operate holdings of less than 1 hectare.
• Small farmers operate holdings in the 1-2 hectare size class.
• These are area-based categories; they do not directly classify farmers by income, crop output or the market value of their land.

What an operational holding means

An operational holding comprises land used wholly or partly for agricultural production and operated as one technical unit by one person, or jointly with others, regardless of ownership, legal form, size or location.

• Land leased in and cultivated by the operator forms part of the operational holding, even though the operator does not own it.
• Land leased out to another cultivator is not counted as part of the owner's operational holding.
• An operational holding can contain several separate plots; classification is based on their combined operated area, not the size of each plot.