BHUBANESWAR: The number of share croppers in the State has decreased by more than two lakh. While there were 7,84,938 share croppers during 2000-01, their number has gone down to 5,72,985, according to agriculture census 2010-11.
During the period of 10 years, the number of marginal farmers cultivating on two hectares (ha) of land has decreased from 11,13,599 to 9,18,647. The number of farmers cultivating the land between two ha and four ha has also decreased from 5,00,531 to 3,11,261.
The number of farmers cultivating between four ha and 10 ha has declined from 1,45,110 to 63,688. Similarly, the number of large farmers cultivating more than 10 ha has been reduced from 13,375 to 5,574.