Land Resources And Agriculture

Option (A). Fallow land is the land which is left without cultivation for less than 5 years to recoup the lost fertility through natural processes.

Option (C). Net Area Sown refers to the physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested.

Option (D). Culturable Wasteland refers to any land that is left fallow for more than 5 years.

The main reason for an increase in forest cover in India is by an increase in the demarcated area under forest rather than an actual increase in forest cover.

A large tract of agricultural land has lost its fertility due to alkalisation and salinisation of soils and waterlogging. Excessive use of chemicals such as insecticides and pesticides has led to their concentration in toxic amounts in the soil profile.

Sugarcane is a water intensive crop and thus, cannot be grown in drier areas.

New seed varieties, called High Yield Variety, of wheat and rice was developed in Mexico and Philippines, respectively in the mid-1960s.

Barren and Wastelands refer to the land which may be classified as a wasteland such as barren hilly terrain, desert lands, ravines, etc., which normally cannot be brought under cultivation with the available technology.

One the other hand, culturable wasteland refers to any land which is left fallow (uncultivated) for more than five years. This land can be brought under cultivation after improving it through reclamation practices.

Net sown area (NSA) refers to the physical extent of land on which are crops are sown and harvested. Hence, it denotes the land that is put into use for cropping (cultivation)once every year.

On the other hand, gross cropped area (GCA) refers to total area sown once as well as more than once in a particular year. For instance, when the crop is sown on a piece of land more than once, the area is counted that many times in the gross cropped area.

In India, the huge population means a higher number of mouths to feed. But the scope for bringing in additional land under net sown area is limited. Thus, increasing cropping intensity is necessary in India.

The cropping intensity (CI) is calculated as follows:

Cropping intensity in percentage = (GCA/NSA) X 100

Moreover, increasing cropping intensity does not just increase output from limited land, it also increases the demand for labour. For a land scarce but labour abundant country like India, a high cropping intensity is desirable not only for fuller utilisation of land resource, but also for reducing unemployment in the rural economy.

An estimation of the total stock of agricultural and land resources i.e., total culturable land can be arrived at by adding up net sown are, all fallow lands and culturable wasteland.

Thus, Total culturable land = Net Sown Area + All Fallow Lands + Culturable Wasteland.

Rainfed farming, in India, is further classified on the basis of adequacy of soil moisture during cropping season into dryland and wetland farming.

Land resources in India faces different types of environmental problems, these are:

Dependence on Erratic Monsoon

• Irrigation covers only 33% of cultivated area in India. The crop production in rest of the cultivated land directly depends on rain.

• Thus, poor performance of the South-West Monsoon can have adverse effect on agricultural output.

• Moreover, rainfall in drought-prone areas is too meagre and highly unreliable. In addition, flash floods are often triggered by the rains.

• Hence, dependence on Monsson makes agricultural and land resource vulnerable to both drought and floods.

Low Productivity

• The yield of crops in India is low in comparison to the international level.

• Per hectare output of most crops such as rice, wheat, cotton and oilseeds in India is much lower than that of the U.S.A., Russia and Japan.

• Also because of the high pressure on the land resources, the labour productivity in Indian agriculture is also very low in comparison to international level.

Lack of Commercialisation

• Large number of farmers produce crops for self-consumption, as these farmers do not have enough land resources to produce more than their requirement.

• Most of the small and marginal farmers grow food grains, which are meant for their own family consumption.

• Modernisation and commercialisation of agriculture have, however, taken place in irrigated areas.

Small Farm Size and Fragmentation

• The average size of land holding, in India, is shrinking under increasing population pressure.

• Thus, there are a large number of marginal and small farmers in the country, whose land holdings are often fragmented.

• The small size fragmented landholdings are uneconomic.

Degradation of Cultivable Land

• Faulty strategy of irrigation results in land degradation, since it may lead to depletion of soil fertility.

• In irrigated regions, a large tract of agricultural land has lost its fertility due to alkaliation and salinisation of soils and waterlogging.

• Excessive use of chemicals such as insecticides and pesticides has led to their concentration in toxic amounts in the soil profile.

Land resources, in India, does not have a unified supervising body and it is being used according to the market logic. This has led to several problems in sustainable management of land resources, key among them listed above.

Agriculture, in India, prior to Independence focussed on subsistence and has dismal performance in the first half of 20^th century, with droughts and famines being common occurrences. Partition saw one-third of irrigated land being given to the new Pakistan.

The immediate goal of the new Government of India was to increase food grains production by (a) switching over from cash crops to food crops; (b) intensification of cropping over already cultivated land; and (c) increasing cultivated area by bringing cultivable and fallow land under plough. Initially, this strategy helped but agricultural production stagnated during late-1950s.

To overcome this, Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) were launched. But two consecutive droughts during mid-1960s resulted in food crisis in the country, and thus food grains had to be imported.

The Government took advantage of a new seed variety known as high yield varieties (HYVs) by the mid-1960s, and introduced package technology comprising HYVs, along with chemical fertilisers in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Wester UP, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. This strategy proved successful and India was able to increase food grains production at very fast rate. This came to be known as ‘Green Revolution’.

This strategy of agricultural development made the country self-reliant in food grain production. But the confined nature of Green Revolution led to regional disparities in agricultural development till 1970s, after which it was expanded to other regions as well.

The planning commission, in 1980s, came up with solutions to the problems of agriculture in rainfed areas. It initiated agro-climatic planning in 1988 to induce regionally balanced agricultural development in the country. Initiation of the policy of liberation and free market economy in 1990s influenced the course of development of Indian agriculture.