_Tribal communities:_ Orissa has a large tribal population which has traditionally relied upon forest land and resources for their livelihoods. Their access to and control over land often continues to be determined by custom. There are legal provisions to prevent tribal land alienation by non-tribals, which operate with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Using this simplified list of stakeholders, Table 16 summarises the possible consequences of the policy options suggested in section 5.1 for each stakeholder group.

As a second step in the stakeholder analysis, it is then useful to summarise potential conflicts and complementarities of interest between stakeholder groups in the form of a simple matrix, as shown in Table 17. The shaded cells highlight the probable sources of resistance to the main policy options suggested by this study. Most obviously, large landowners may be expected to use their political influence to thwart the Government's attempts to formulate policies that aim to increase the poor's access to land or to improve the 'efficiency' of land revenue administration, if this means they have less chance of manipulating it in their own favour. Legislation to de-regulate tenancy might also be expected to meet with stiff opposition owing to the complementarity of interests between the large landowners and the legislators.

The state government might also need to be particularly mindful of the possible resistance to policy reform from the tehsil-level revenue officers. It may prove necessary for the state-level revenue administration to build coalitions with selected junior officers to implement the new policies successfully. This will also be necessary given the strong nexus of interests at village level between large landowners and tehsil-level revenue officers, which could so easily derail any casual attempts at reform.

# **5.3** Suggestions **for follow up**

A pilot study is constrained by its exploratory nature. It is suggested that further state-level studies be conducted, in selected states, applying the approach that has been tested here. The Annex specifies the minimum amounts of time required to conduct certain stages of the field investigation. The time required will naturally increase with an increase in the number of districts selected for analysis.

Priority states for subsequent studies would include Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Several criteria have guided their selection. **Andhra Pradesh** is a former _ryotwari_ area with a relatively high agricultural growth rate, and demonstrated willingness to pursue improvements in land administration (relative success with land consolidation, registration of informal tenancies, progress with computerization of land records, and reform of the land administration agencies. **Uttar Pradesh** is a former _zamindari_ area with high rates of tenancy and in which the need to deregulate land-lease market has been identified as an urgent priority. It also offers a relatively successful precedent with land consolidation, and a plethora of village studies and secondary data. **West Bengal** is also a former _zamindari_ area with high tenancy rates, and which has received wide acclaim for the systematic recording of tenants' rights under 'Operation Barga'.

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