(1) 152,882 acres of total holding area in Chin State were distributed among 58,611 holdings; of which 99.98%
was household-based land holdings. Over 91% of these holdings were small farms under 5 acres in size, and only
0.01% were large farms extending over 50 acres. Among special land holdings, 46.15% were 50 acres and
above in size.
(2) 88.08% of holders were males and only 11.92% were females. 66.58%
of all holders had schooling indicating their capability to adopt improved techniques of production
and to be responsive to effective extension services. 91.52% of holders worked permanently on holdings.
21.93% of land holders had other sources of income.
(3) 4.71% of all holdings employed paid workers, 4.65% employed occasional
workers, and only 0.24% employed permanent workers. A large portion of labour input
was supplied by farm families. Among paid workers, the number of occasional workers
was much higher than that of the permanent workers. Special holdings however employed
a large percentage of hired labour; paid workers 53.85% permanent workers 69.23% and
occasional workers 53.85%.
(4) A large percentage of special land holdings used machinery and equipment
than did household-based land holdings. 23.08% of special land holdings used water
pumps, 15.38% used tractors, and 23.08% used generators/motors, 53.85% used power
tillersand 7.69% used other farm machinery. In Chin State, terrace farming is of
recent introduction, and extension programmes are underway to bring in more farms into terrace
cultivation. The slash, burn and shift method of cultivating land along steep slopes does
not permit the use of farm machineries. Large farms had the advantage to adopt modern
farm machinery.
(5) Compared to household-based land holdings, a large percentage of special
land holdings used fertilizers 92.31% and HYV seeds 38.46%. The use of pesticieds
was very limited. Only 2.00% of household-based land holdings used pesticides.As in
the case of capital inputs, large farms benefited from the used of new technical know-
how and modern methods of cultivation.
(6) 18.14% of land holdings used irrigation. Rivers, creeks and government
canals were the important sources of irrigation; they provided irrigation to 86.06% of
household-based land holdings.
(7) 83.20% of the total holding area was taungya land, 10.53% were paddy
land, and 4.79% were garden land.
(8) 86.36% of land area operated by household-based land holdings were under
cereals, 6.57% under pulses, 5.20% under industrial crops and 1.11% under vegetables.
Among cereals, paddy was the main crop sown.
(9) 22.87% of all land holdings used draught animals. The shifting
cultivation done on small plots of land along the slopes does not require the
use of either draught animals or power tillers.
(10) The average size of an agricultural holding was about 2.6 acres. The average size of an agricultural household was 6. About one in every 4 household-based land holdings had other sources of income. The average number of parcel per household- based land holdings was 1.5 and the average size of a parcel was 1.78 acres.The average cultivation intensity was found to be 1.24. The propulation of land left fallow was about 0.59%.
GO TO HOME GO TO BACK