Peasant Migration and Lease Market: An Investigation into a Village

A much-debated issue in agriculture is the form and nature of tenancy relations. An implicit opinion in the debate is the low turnover in the permanent transaction market for land and any sales that exist are to meet the cash needs of the households. In such a situation the resource adjustments in the market are in the temporary transaction market. But in a village economy which has witnessed a relatively high turnover in the market resource adjustments in the market takes place in both the markets. In such a village economy it would be interesting to see the form and nature of the lease market.

In the present paper, an attempt is made to study the lease market in an expanding economy. The source of growth in the economy was the provision of water through irrigation. This has led to in-migration of peasants from other areas wha had bought land as well as leased land. The nature af permanent transaction market for land was analyzed in an earlier paper where it was found that the seller's characteristics influence the price of land while the' buyer's characteristics influence the quantum of land leased. The objective of this paper is to examine whether the characteristics of agents, in which migrant-native character is one important variable, influences the quantum of land leased and the value of rental on land. Here it is seen that migrant-native character of the buyer influences the rental value of rental land but not the quantum of land. In addition the leasing out agent dominantly influences the lease market i.e., the supply side factors influence the lease market.