Agriculture not only includes crop raising but all other allied activities like animal rearing, horticulture, pisciculture, sericulture, silviculture etc which are directly attached to land. ‘Any economic endeavor that utilizes directly the natural resources of soil and water for production is included in agriculture.’ (Singh, 1994, p. 167).
The topographical and climatic conditions have favoured India to utilize more than 55 per cent of its area for agricultural purposes against the world average of only 11 per cent. While most of the world’s countries raise only one crop, India has the potential to raise two.
The area that can be brought under irrigation is almost equal to the total net cultivated area of China. But all is not good in respect of land use in general and crop land use in particular. While general land use has predominance of cropped land leaving out very little land for forests, groves and pastures, the cropping pattern is dominated by food crops with very small area under cash and fodder crops and allied activities. In fact very few attempts have been made for scientific land use survey and suggest strategy for judicious and optimum utilisation of land resources.
Land utilization in India
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The present pattern of India’s land use is the result of a number of factors like topography, climate, soils, human activities and technological inputs. While excessive rainfall in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh exhibits the predominance of forests in land use its deficiency in Rajasthan and Gujarat makes a sizeable area barren and uncultivable.
The level topography, fertile soils and pressure of population have brought major portion of the land area under cultivation in the Ganga Plain while the rugged relief and infertile soil impede the development of agriculture in Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
There has been phenomenal increase in the net sown area during the last forty years. In 1950-51 the net sown area was only 118.75 million hectares which increased to 142.23 million hectares in 1999- 00 showing an increase of 23.48 million hectares (18.93% over 1950-51). Similarly the area sown more than once has increased at a much faster rate from 13.14 million hectares in 1950-51 to 48.51 million hectares in 1999-00 exhibiting a net gain of 35.37 million hectares (269.18% over 1950-51).
The total cropped area has risen from 131.89 million hectares in 1950-51 to 189.74 million hectares (an increase of 43.83% over 1950-51). While the increase in net sown area is due to reclamation of barren and uncultivable land, groves and cultivable wastes, the rise in double cropped area is mainly attributed to the expansion of irrigational facilities.
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On spatial perspective the net sown area occupies the highest category (above 55% of the reporting area) in Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala followed by medium category (30-55%) in Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Goa and Assam; and low category (below 30%) in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Andaman-Nicobar islands Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. It has almost reached its optimum level in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh etc. and has started showing declining trends in recent years.
Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have more than 50% of their net sown area under multiple cropping, while Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Manipur, Orissa, Sikkim and Rajasthan etc. belong to the lower category (more than 33% of the net sown area). In general double cropping is popular in areas where water is available through rains or irrigation.
Forests
The forest area has increased considerably from 40.48 million hectares in 1950-51 to 69.02 million hectares in 1999-00 showing a net gain of 28.54 million hectares during 1950-51 and 1999-00 (70.50% increase over 1950-51 forest area). This puts 22.55% of the reporting area under forests against 33.3% recommended under Forest Policy, 1952 NRSA surveys reveal that only 46 million hectares are under real forests.
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Forests occupy more than 80 per cent of the reporting area in Andaman and Nicobar islands, and Arunachal Pradesh; 40-80 per cent in Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Dadra and Nagar Haveli; 20-40 per cent in Goa, Assam, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh; and remaining states below 20 per cent of the total reporting area.
There has been virtual depletion of forest cover from the plains of Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar due to expansion of agricultural activities. In Tarai region alone thousands of hectares of forest lands have been cleared for cultivation and to rehabilitate refugees from Pakistan after Partition. The special drive for a forestation under social forestry is yielding good results to increase forest cover in the country.
Land Not Available for Cultivation
This includes two categories of lands: (a) devoted to non-agricultural uses like settlements, transport routes, canals, quarries etc., and (b) barren and uncultivable land occupied by mountains, deserts, marshes, ravines etc. While former is characterised by increasing trend (from 9.36 million hectares in 1950-51 to 23.23 million hectares in 1999.-00) due to spurt in development activities and population-growth, the latter is marked by slow declining trend (from 38.16 million hectares in 1950-51 to 19.18 million hectares in 1999-00-00) due to its reclamation agricultural and non-agricultural uses. Large of such barren land exist in Manipur (65.31 Sikkim (38.03%), Assam (31.97%), Gujarat (19, and Himachal Pradesh (25.57%) Similarly the portion of land put to non-agricultural uses is hi| in West Bengal (14.62), Tamil Nadu (13.6! Assam (11.58), Sikkim (9.36%), and Bihar (9.5′)
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Fallow Lands
The fallow lands including current (I-2ytj and other fallows (2-5 years) occupy about 8.13 cent of the reporting area in the country. There been declining trend in the area of fallow (28.12 million hectares in 1950-51, 27.97 n hectares in 1975-76 and 24.9 million hectare| 1999-00) although current and old fallows hi shown wide fluctuations. With the increasing fertilisers and irrigation the farmers are showing interest in fallowing. Tamil Nadu, Bihar, And Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Karnataka exhibit comparatively higher percent of fallow lands than the national average.
This includes 9.3% (28.48 million ha.)Of total reporting area of the country and comprises permanent pastures and grazing lands (land under tree crops and groves (1.18%), and cultivable waste (4.52%). Himachal Pradesh Sikkim has sizeable percentage of area as pennant pastures and grazing land. Sheep-rearing been an important source of employment in the states. On the other hand, in plain areas, the under this category is negligible. It is really of credit to our farmers that with so little pastures) grazing lands we have the largest number of cattle the world. This leads to poor health of the cattle, output of milk and meat and pressure on forest land under miscellaneous tree crops anagram has its highest percentage in Nagaland (7.95), lowed by Meghalaya (7.87), Orissa (4.97), Ass! (3.01) and Tripura (2.57). Efforts should be mad reverse its declining trends and popularise horde true amongst farmers to supplement their agricultural income and provide them work during agricultural season.
Cultivable wasteland includes such areas which are currently not taken up for cultivation or have been abandoned due to loss of soil fertility and degradation. Reh, bhur, usar and khola tracts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab come under this category. With a little bit of scientific planning this land may be brought back to agriculture or forestry. The National Wasteland Development Board is taking steps for the survey and reclamation of these areas.
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The highest percentage of cultural wasteland lies in Meghalaya (20.03), followed by Goa (15.23), Rajasthan (14.56), Gujarat (10.49) and Mizoram (5.74%). The declining trend of cultivable wasteland depicts its reclamation for agricultural and allied activities.