Explain about the land utilization for agriculture in Indian Economy ?
As in all other countries , land in India is put to various uses. The utilization of land depends upon physical factors likes topography , soil and climate as well as upon human factors such as the density of population of occupation of the area, land tenure and technical levels of the people . There are spatial and temporal difference in land utilization due to the continued interplay of physical and human factors . India has total geographical area of about 328.73 million hectares in 2012 – 13.
Cropped area in the year under consideration is called net sown area. This area has a special significance in an agricultural country like India because agricultural production largely depends upon this type of land. There is an urgent need to increase the net Net area sown for meeting the food and other requirements of rapidly increasing population in India ; although there is not much scope for increasing area under category due to natural limitations such as topography ,soils , climate, etc . However , it is heartening to note that net area sown has increased from 118.7 million hectares in 1950-51 to 140.74 m.h in2012-13.
As the name indicates , this area is used to grow more than one crop in a year . This accounts for over 34.78% of the net sown area and 15.99 % of the total reporting area of the country . This types of area comprises of land with rich fertile soils and regular water supply. It is clear that the percentage of area sown more than once is rather low in India as a whole . This is attributed to infertile soils , deficiency of moisture and insufficient use of manures and fertilizers. This type of land is of special significance . Since almost all the arable land has already been brought under plough, the only course left to increase the agricultural production is to increase the intensity of cropping which can be done by increasing the area sown more than once . Large tracts of the Indo-Ganga plain in Punjab , Haryana , Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and in coastal regions have large percentage of area sown more than once
Forest area has increased considerably from 40.45 million hectares in 1950-51 to 70.01m hectares in 2012 -13.However , 22.88%of forest land to the total reporting area is not sufficient for a tropical. Country like India where about 33% of the total land should be under forests. This will require massive tree plantations and vigorous restrictions on the reckless felling of trees . According to the expert committee recommendations , much of the area reclaimed from the forest for agriculture should be retired from cultivation and brought back under forests to save the land from the adverse effects of deforestations
This class consists of two types of land ( i ) land put to non agricultural uses and ( ii ) barren and unculturable waste. The area put to non-agricultural uses includes land occupied by village , towns ,roads ,railways or under water i.e rivers , lakes , canals , tanks , ponds , etc . The barren land covers all barren and uncultivated landsi n mountains and hill slopes , deserts and rocky areas . These areas cannot be brought under plough except at high input cost with possible low returns . The amount of this land has been variable right from 1950 – 51 to 2012 – 13 , the data for which are available . Land not available for cultivation accounted for 14.3 % of the total reported area in 2012 – 13. the largest amount of land in this category is in Andhra Pradesh followed by Rajasthan , Madhya Pradesh , Gujarat , Uttar Pradesh and Bihar .
A total area of 10.24 million hectares is devoted to permanent pastures and other grazing lands. This amount to about3.35 % of the total reporting area of the country . Grazing takes place mostly in forests and other uncultivated land wherever pasturage is available . the area presently under pastures and other grazing land is not sufficient keeping in view the large population of livestock in the country . About one – third of the reporting area in Himachal Pradesh is under pastures . The proportion varies from 4 to 10% in Madhya Pradesh , Karnataka , Gujarat , Rajasthan , Maharashtra and Odisha . It is less than 4% in the remaining parts of the country.
Land under miscellaneous tree crops and groves includes all cultivable land which is not included under net area sown , but is put to some agricultural use . Land under casuarina trees, thatching grass , bamboo , bushes , other groves for fuel , etc . Which are not included under this category. Land under this category declined sharply from 19.8million hectares in 1950-51 to only 4.46 million hectares in 2012 – 13 . Thus the percentage of this land fell from 6.97%in 1950 -51 to a mere 1.49% in 1960 – 61 and further to 1.03% in 2012 – 13 .Odisha has the largest area of 7.74 lakshhectares in his category followed by uttar Pradesh , bihar , Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh , assam and tamil nadu.
The “ wasteland survey and reclamation committee” defines “ culturable waste” as the land available for cultivation but not used for cultivation for one reason or the other . This land was usd in the past but has been abandoned for some reason . It is not being used at ptesent due to such constraints as lack of water , salinity of soil , soil erosion , waterlogging ,an unfavoursble physiographic position , or human neglect . Reh , bhur , usar , and khola tracts of utter Pradesh , Punjab and Haryana as well as in several other parts of the country were used for agriculture in the past but had to be abandoned due to some deficiencies in the soil resulting from faulty agricultural practices .
This category includes all that land which was used for cultivation but is temporarily out of cultivation . Fallow land is of two types viz., current fallow and fallow other than current fallow . Fallow ofoe year is called ‘current fallow’ while that of 2 to5 years is classified as ‘ fallow other than current fallow ‘ .
There is need to reduce the extent and frequency of fallow land in order to increase agricultural production. This can be done by proper dose of fertilizers , providing irrigation facilities , crop rotation and combination and several other similar farm techniques .