The correct answer is Fragmentation of farmland. Explanation & Key Takeaways: Fragmentation of farmland: • Fragmentation refers to division, and from an agricultural point of view it can be defined as, a situation under which a cultivator owns an operational holding consisting of more than one plot of land. • Therefore, the fragmented land has been considered as comprising two or more plots of land which may be separated from one another. • These repeated subdivisions and fragmentation of land are major problems affecting agriculture. • Division of land into equal lots among settlers is followed by further subdivision. • The continuous growth of the population has further forced the problem as it became necessary to break up and distribute common lands. • Hence this system of inheritance made such problems still worse. Effects of Fragmentation: • Most of the labour of the farmer and his animals is exhausted in the journey from one plot to another. • Most of the time the farmer is lost in shifting animals, fertilizers, seeds and other equipment. • A good proportion of cultivated land is wasted in boundaries, hedges, ditches, footpaths, etc. • the use of modern farm machinery in small fragments is virtually impossible in the fragmented land. • It is responsible for increased overhead costs, including even the cost of production resulting in low returns from agriculture.