 A successful land reform was introduced that abolished giant landholdings, but efforts to redistribute land by placing limits on landownership failed.Attempts to introduce large-scale cooperative farming were frustrated by landowning rural elites, who formed the core of the powerful right-wing of the Congress and had considerable political support in opposing the efforts of Nehru.Agricultural production expanded until the early 1960s, as additional land was brought under cultivation and some irrigation projects began to have an effect.