According to the bill, all land belonging to the state that was unoccupied or unregistered would be turned into smallholdings and given to agricultural labourers.
Moreover, planters complained that larger estates were being forced to provide these services while smaller estates and smallholdings were exempted from these rules.
This region was characterized rather by smallholdings of 0.5-4 hectares: 55 per cent of the households fell into this category.
Rapid population growth has resulted in a marked reduction in the fallow period and the partitioning of farmlands into smallholdings.
The smallholdings have a low level of specialization and labour productivity.
In 1999, half were still living on a farm or smallholding, all of whom had at least one child living with them.
A limited number of smallholdings are managed intensively for the production of specialty crops for domestic and export markets.
There were twelve farmers of fifty acres or more in 1754, while fifty-two others had decent smallholdings or small farms.
