Only 38% farmers cultivate own land in state, shows Centre’s data

Nearly 38% farmers exclusively cultivate their own land. Almost 59% have either leased out or shared their land instead of cultivating it entirely on their own, suggests data shared by the Department of Food and Public Distribution. The tenants or cultivators earn revenue from crops such as wheat, paddy, maize and vegetables.

Experts say the growing dependence on tenancy reflects deepening distress, driven by factors such as pursuit of greener pastures abroad, a shrinking rural population and the waning interest of youth in agriculture.

According to the data of paddy season 2024-2025 on the Central Food Grain Procurement Portal, which is based on the assessment of 12.83 lakh farmers, 4.98 lakh (38.83%) cultivated their own land. In contrast, 5.30 lakh (41.31%) farmers tilled a mix of owned and leased land, while over 2.2 lakh (17.31%) were sharecroppers and (2.55%) entirely cultivated leased land.

In comparison, 77.85% of Haryana farmers and 98.31% of UP grow crops on their own land. The national average across paddy-growing states stands at 79.68%. With the migration of Punjabi youth abroad since 2016-17, contract and lease farming expanded rapidly. More than half of farmers have leased out land in four districts — Nawanshahr (56.12%), Hoshiarpur (50.81%), Jalandhar (50.19%), and Ropar (50.46%). Earlier, large farmers leased land to small cultivators, but the trend has changed now. “Small farmers now find cultivation on small plots unviable, while large farmers expand operations by getting more land on lease,” said a farm expert.

Lease rates have also skyrocketed, ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 per acre, depending on the region. Panchayat lands, covering around 2 lakh acres, fetched Rs 515 crore this year at an average lease rate of Rs 38,823 per acre.

In areas like Rampura Phul (Malwa), large farmers lease land on a massive scale. “In Malwa, lease rates are beyond the reach of small farmers, unlike in Majha and Doaba,” said a senior official.

Heavy mechanisation has further reshaped Punjab’s farming model. A PAU study found that cultivating one acre of wheat now requires only 64 human labour hours, while paddy needs 160 hours, reducing employment opportunities.

Economist Dr RS Ghuman observed that 80% of farmers no longer want their children to take up farming as it is no longer profitable. Prof Sukhpal Singh, chairman of the Farmers and Farm Workers Commission, said large machinery did not suit Punjab’s increasingly fragmented landholdings.