- There are two basic categories of land tenure: lands under state control and land under private ownership.
These two can be further sub-divided into the following main categories:

•  Private lands with freehold titles which the owner  has to right to transfer or dispose of.
•  State lands which the government and the provincial councils may alienate and regulate.
•  State leaseholds where the government retains absolute titles, such as lands under the Land Development Ordinance (LDO).
•  Lands in custody of state corporations and departments, the tenure condition of which is neither private nor state.
•  Jayaboomi, which are lands given as state grants under certain conditions (13).

- Agricultural land may also take other special forms of tenure to meet specific needs:

• Thattumaru: the co-owners of a piece of land take turns in cultivating it.
• Kattimaru: land is subdivided into plots which are cultivated in rotation by co-owners.
• Bethma: it is a sub-division scheme used in the dry zone to meet an ad hoc lack of water contingency in the village tank.
• Ande: a land owner who is not able to cultivate by himself land under paddy gets another person to help him and pays him with a share of the crop (13).