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Abstract
The sale as well as lease transactions of agricultural land affect both the distributional and production pattern which have serious policy consequences in a developing economy. The study, using the qualitative analytical methods of logit function, identified the socio-economic characters which influenced the land sale or lease decisions of farmers in a highly fertile and developed region of India. The study found that with an increase in the size of holding, the farmers showed greater probability to (i) buy more land in the sale market, and (ii) lease-out land in the lease market. The former tendency leads to dispossession of small holders and, consequently, adverse effects on distribution of land and production of subsistence crops needed for the growing population, while the latter tendency offsets these adverse effects through favourable redistribution atleast of the operated area as generally small holders lease-in land in the region to optimise their family labour and financial resources. Among the other variables, the increase in age and addiction to drugs or gambling in family are found to be raising the probability of being a seller or lessor. It is argued that leasing of agricultural land be accorded fully recognised legal status with some regulatory controls.