Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday, 12 June 2026, announced that the state government has taken a significant decision to implement a voluntary and partial chakbandi (land consolidation) policy across 11 mountainous districts of the state, responding to a long-standing demand of hill farmers.

Context

In his post on X, CM Dhami stated: 'Honouring the years-old demand of farmers in mountainous regions and the sentiments of the people, the state government has taken the important decision to implement a voluntary/partial chakbandi policy in 11 hill districts.' He added that the measure 'will pave the way for integrating small, scattered fields, providing convenience to farmers in agriculture and giving new strength to the rural economy.'

The announcement directly addresses one of the most persistent structural problems facing Uttarakhand's hill farmers — extreme fragmentation of agricultural holdings caused by steep terrain and inheritance-driven subdivision of land over generations.

Policy Backdrop

Land consolidation in the region has deep legislative roots. The Uttar Pradesh Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953, established the framework for merging scattered plots into compact, workable units — a law that continued to apply to areas forming present-day Uttarakhand after the state was carved out in 2000.

The new policy adopts a voluntary and partial model, meaning farmers are not compelled to participate. This approach is consistent with a broader pattern seen across India's Himalayan states, where governments have favoured incentive-based consolidation over compulsory acquisition to avoid social friction while still improving input use, irrigation access, and the scope for mechanisation.

Fragmented holdings across hill districts have historically suppressed per-acre productivity, raised the cost of cultivation, and made it difficult to extend irrigation infrastructure or deploy machinery on economically viable plots.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are small and marginal farmers spread across Uttarakhand's 11 mountainous districts, who have long pressed successive state governments for a workable consolidation mechanism. Consolidated plots are expected to reduce the time and cost farmers spend moving between dispersed parcels and to improve access to institutional credit, which typically requires clear, contiguous land records as collateral.

The rural economy of hill Uttarakhand — already under pressure from out-migration and the decline of subsistence farming — stands to gain if consolidation raises agricultural income and encourages younger residents to stay on the land. Village-level governance bodies and revenue officials will be central to implementing the voluntary process on the ground.

What's Next

The immediate focus will be on the rollout of pilot guidelines and operational procedures for voluntary consolidation across the 11 districts. Observers will watch for any accompanying state budget allocations, amendments to existing land-records legislation, or the appointment of district-level nodal officers to manage the process.

If early pilots demonstrate measurable gains in farm productivity and rural incomes, the policy could serve as a template for other hill states grappling with the same structural constraints — making Uttarakhand's experiment one with implications beyond its own borders.