Land Resources and Agriculture
Land-use records are maintained by the Land Revenue Department, which defines the 'reporting area'. The Survey of India measures the 'geographical area', which is fixed.
Land is categorized into nine types: Forests, Barren and Wastelands, Land put to Non-agricultural Uses, Permanent Pastures, Miscellaneous Tree Crops, Culturable Wasteland, Current Fallow, Other Fallow, and Net Sown Area.
Current Fallow is land uncultivated for one year or less. Fallow other than Current Fallow is uncultivated for one to five years. Land left fallow for more than five years becomes Culturable Wasteland.
Between 1950-51 and 2019-20, the share of area under forest, non-agricultural uses, and net sown area increased. The area under barren land, culturable wasteland, and pastures declined.
The highest rate of increase in land use is for non-agricultural purposes, driven by the expansion of industries, services, infrastructure, and urban settlements.
CPRs are community-owned resources like pastures and village water bodies, essential for the livelihood of landless and marginal farmers by providing fodder and fuel.
Cropping intensity measures the number of crops grown on the same field in one agricultural year. It is calculated as (Gross Cropped Area / Net Sown Area) x 100.
India has three distinct cropping seasons: Kharif (monsoon crops like rice), Rabi (winter crops like wheat), and Zaid (short summer season for vegetables and fodder).
Farming is classified as Irrigated and Rainfed. Rainfed farming is further divided into Dryland farming (in regions with less than 75 cm annual rainfall) and Wetland farming (in regions with excess rainfall).
Rice is the main food crop, grown as a Kharif crop in humid regions. Wheat is the second most important cereal, grown as a Rabi crop in temperate conditions.
Pulses like gram and tur (arhar) are important sources of protein and are legume crops that enhance soil fertility through nitrogen fixation.
Key commercial crops include Sugarcane (tropical crop), Cotton (kharif crop in semi-arid areas), Jute (cash crop in West Bengal), Tea, and Coffee (plantation crops).
Post-independence, India focused on increasing food production by converting cash crop areas to food crops, intensifying cropping, and bringing fallow land under cultivation.
Introduced in the mid-1960s, the Green Revolution used High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of wheat (from Mexico) and rice (from the Philippines), along with fertilizers and irrigation, to achieve food self-sufficiency.
A major problem in Indian agriculture is its heavy reliance on the monsoon, as only about one-third of the cultivated area is under irrigation, making the rest vulnerable to droughts and floods.
Compared to international levels, the per-hectare output of most crops in India is low, especially in the vast rainfed areas.
The average farm size in India is shrinking due to population pressure, and landholdings are often fragmented, which makes them uneconomic for modern farming.
Faulty agricultural practices have led to land degradation. In irrigated areas, this includes salinisation and waterlogging, while in rainfed areas, it involves soil erosion.