Land Consolidation and Agricultural Productivity
Summary
Land consolidation encompasses the systematic regrouping and reallocation of fragmented agricultural parcels into larger, more regular units to enhance the efficiency of farm operations. By reducing the number of isolated plots and optimising field geometry, consolidation facilitates the use of modern machinery, improves irrigation management and lowers operational costs. Globally, consolidation has been deployed as a policy instrument to bolster yields, promote economies of scale and strengthen rural livelihoods. Its success often hinges on complementary measures such as tenure security, infrastructure investment and tailored support for smallholders. While consolidation can raise crop output and technical efficiency, it must be balanced against social equity, environmental stewardship and local land-use traditions.
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Land Consolidation and Agricultural Productivity publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in land consolidation and agricultural productivity across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Land consolidation: The process of merging and reconfiguring scattered land parcels into larger, contiguous and regularly shaped plots to improve agricultural efficiency.
Land fragmentation: The division of farmland into many small, non-contiguous parcels, which impedes mechanisation and raises transaction costs.
Technical efficiency: A measure of a farm’s output relative to the maximum possible given its inputs, indicating how closely production approaches the technology frontier.
Stochastic frontier analysis: An econometric technique that estimates the production frontier while separating inefficiency effects from statistical noise.
References
- Assessing the Impacts of Land Consolidation on Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Producers: A Survey from Jiangsu Province, China. Sustainability (2018).
- Farmers Willingness to Participate In Voluntary Land Consolidation in Gozamin District, Ethiopia. Land (2019).
- Farmland Fragmentation, Farmland Consolidation and Food Security: Relationships, Research Lapses and Future Perspectives. Land (2021).
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