Page 386 - Ranah Studi Agraria: Penguasaan Tanah dan Hubungan Agraris

Agrarian and Nonagrarian Bases ...

not (or did not yet) inherit land. It is likely that all three mecha-
nisms have been at work.
The various individual case-study reports from the sample
villages give evidence of a lively and growing land sale market

in all villages, although it was not always possible to quantify
land sales. In Rowosari, Kebanggan, Wanarata, and Sukosari
data are available on the ways in which sawah presently owned
was acquired by households in the different landowning
classes. While the great majority of land owned by smaller
owners came to them through inheritance, owners of more
than 0.5 ha tend to have acquired large proportions of their
land through purchase; the great majority of land sales have
transferred land to these groups from smaller owners (Djoko
Kustiono et al. 1981; Retno Se- tyowati et al. 1981; Suseno et
al. 1981; Umar Wahyu Widodo et al 1981). On the other hand,
generally less than 10 of presently non-owning households in
the nine villages report having formerly owned land and having
lost it through sale. It appears, then, that the resumption of
share-tenanted land from former tenants, by owners wishing
to cultivate it themselves or to shift to fixed-rent leasing, has
been a more important factor than losses through sale in the
rapid growth of non- cultivator -absolute’ landless households.

Our information on this point is incomplete, but there is clear
evidence in some villages of a decline in share tenancies, and
landless respondents in many others report increasing diffi-
culty in obtaining share tenancies.

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