Agricultural Land Use in India

Agricultural Land Use in India

Land is far more critical to agriculture than it is to secondary or tertiary activities. In farming, land is not just a location — it is the primary input. The contribution of land to agricultural output is much higher than its contribution to output in industry or services. This is why lack of access to land is directly linked to rural poverty. If a rural household owns no land, its chances of being poor are very high.

The quality of land also matters directly for agricultural productivity. A fertile plot yields more than a degraded one, and this relationship is much weaker in non-agricultural sectors. Beyond economics, land ownership in rural India carries social value. It provides security for credit, acts as a buffer against natural hazards or life emergencies, and adds to a family's social status.

Total Cultivable Land and Its Decline

The total stock of agricultural land resources — that is, the total cultivable land — is calculated by adding three categories:

• Net sown area (land actually under crops)
• All fallow lands (current fallow and other fallow)
• Culturable wasteland (land that is not currently cultivated but can be brought under cultivation)

Over the decades, there has been a marginal decline in the total cultivable land as a percentage of total reporting area. More importantly, the cultivated land (net sown area) has declined even more, despite a corresponding reduction in culturable wasteland. This means the scope for bringing additional land under cultivation in India is very limited.

The Need for Land-Saving Technologies

Since we cannot expand the area under cultivation much, the only way to increase agricultural output is to use the existing land more efficiently. Land-saving technologies fall into two types:

1. Yield-raising technologies — those that increase the output of a particular crop per unit area (e.g., better seeds, fertilisers, irrigation).
2. Land-use intensity technologies — those that increase the total output from all crops grown on a piece of land over one agricultural year, by growing more crops in succession on the same field.

The second type has an added advantage: it increases the demand for labour significantly. For a country like India, which has scarce land but abundant labour, a high cropping intensity is desirable. It not only uses land more fully but also helps reduce rural unemployment.

A CI above 100 means that some land is being cropped more than once in a year.

Cropping Seasons in India

In the northern and interior parts of India, there are three distinct crop seasons:

Kharif (June–September): Coincides with the southwest monsoon. Tropical crops like rice, cotton, jute, jowar, bajra, and tur are grown.

Rabi (October–March): Begins with the onset of winter. Low temperatures suit temperate and subtropical crops such as wheat, gram, rapeseed, mustard, and barley.

Zaid (April–June): A short summer season after rabi harvest. Watermelons, cucumbers, vegetables, and fodder are grown on irrigated land.

This three-season pattern does not exist in southern India. There, temperatures remain high enough to grow tropical crops throughout the year, provided soil moisture is available. The same crop can be grown three times in a single agricultural year if sufficient moisture is present.

Types of Farming

Based on the main source of moisture, farming is classified into irrigated and rainfed (barani).

Irrigated farming itself differs by objective:

• Protective irrigation: The goal is to protect crops from the adverse effects of moisture deficiency. Irrigation here acts as a supplement to rainfall. The strategy is to provide soil moisture to the maximum possible area, even if each field gets only a little water.
• Productive irrigation: The goal is to provide sufficient soil moisture to achieve high productivity. Water input per unit area is higher than in protective irrigation.

Rainfed farming is further classified based on the adequacy of soil moisture:

• Dryland farming: Confined to regions with annual rainfall less than 75 cm. Farmers grow hardy, drought-resistant crops like ragi, bajra, moong, gram, and guar (fodder). Soil moisture conservation and rainwater harvesting are practised.
• Wetland farming: Rainfall exceeds the soil moisture requirement of plants during the rainy season. These regions may face flood and soil erosion hazards. Water-intensive crops like rice, jute, and sugarcane are grown, and aquaculture is practised in freshwater bodies.

Foodgrains

Foodgrains occupy about two-thirds of the total cropped area in India. They are dominant in all parts of the country, whether the farming is subsistence or commercial. Foodgrains are classified into cereals and pulses based on the structure of the grain.

Cereals

Cereals occupy about 54 per cent of the total cropped area. India produces about 11 per cent of the world's cereals and ranks third after China and the USA. Cereals are further classified as fine grains (rice, wheat) and coarse grains (jowar, bajra, maize, ragi).

Rice: The staple food for the overwhelming majority of Indians. Though it is a crop of tropical humid areas, many varieties are grown in different agro-climatic regions — from sea level to about 2,000 m altitude, and from humid eastern India to the dry but irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, and northern Rajasthan. In southern states and West Bengal, two or three crops of rice can be grown in a year. In West Bengal, farmers grow three crops: 'aus', 'aman', and 'boro'. In the Himalayas and northwestern parts, it is grown only as a kharif crop. India contributes 22.07 per cent of world rice production and ranks second after China. About one-fourth of the total cropped area is under rice. Leading producers: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab. Yield is high in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, and Kerala. In the first four of these states, almost all rice land is irrigated. Punjab and Haryana are not traditional rice areas — rice cultivation was introduced there in the 1970s following the Green Revolution. High yields there are due to genetically improved seeds, high fertiliser and pesticide use, and lower pest susceptibility because of the dry climate. Yield is very low in rainfed areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.

Wheat: The second most important cereal. India produces about 12.8 per cent of the world's wheat. It is primarily a temperate crop, so it is grown in the rabi season. About 85 per cent of the wheat area is concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Malwa Plateau, and the Himalayas up to 2,700 m altitude. It is mostly irrigated, but rainfed in Himalayan highlands and parts of the Malwa plateau. About 14 per cent of total cropped area is under wheat. Leading producers: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan. Yield is very high (above 4,000 kg per ha) in Punjab and Haryana, moderate in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar, and low in rainfed areas of Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Jowar (sorghum): Coarse cereals together occupy about 16.5 per cent of total cropped area. Jowar alone accounts for about 5.3 per cent. It is the main food crop in semi-arid areas of central and southern India. Maharashtra produces more than half of the country's jowar. Other leading producers: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana. In southern states, it is sown in both kharif and rabi seasons. In northern India, it is a kharif crop grown mostly as fodder. South of the Vindhyas, it is rainfed and its yield is very low.

Bajra: Grown in hot, dry climatic conditions in northwestern and western India. It is a hardy crop that resists frequent dry spells and drought. It is cultivated alone or as part of mixed cropping. It occupies about 5.2 per cent of total cropped area. Leading producers: Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana. Yield has increased in recent years in Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat due to drought-resistant varieties and expansion of irrigation.

Maize: A food and fodder crop grown under semi-arid conditions and over inferior soils. It occupies only about 3.6 per cent of total cropped area. It is not concentrated in any specific region — it is sown all over India except Punjab and the eastern and north-eastern regions. Leading producers: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh. Yield is higher than other coarse cereals; it is high in southern states and declines towards central parts.

Pulses

Pulses are a vital ingredient of vegetarian food as they are rich in proteins. They are legume crops that increase soil fertility through nitrogen fixation. India is the leading producer of pulses in the world. Pulse cultivation is largely concentrated in the drylands of the Deccan, central plateaus, and northwestern parts of the country. Pulses occupy about 11 per cent of total cropped area. Being rainfed crops of drylands, their yields are low and fluctuate from year to year. The main pulses are gram and tur (arhar).

Gram: Cultivated in subtropical areas. It is mostly a rainfed rabi crop in central, western, and northwestern India. Only one or two light showers or irrigations are needed. It has been displaced from the cropping pattern by wheat in Haryana, Punjab, and northern Rajasthan after the Green Revolution. It now covers only about 2.8 per cent of total cropped area. Main producers: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan. Yield remains low and fluctuates even in irrigated areas.

Tur (Arhar): Also known as red gram or pigeon pea. It is the second most important pulse. It is cultivated on marginal lands under rainfed conditions in the dry areas of central and southern states. It occupies only about 2 per cent of total cropped area. Maharashtra alone contributes about one-third of total production. Other leading producers: Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh. Per hectare output is very low and inconsistent.

Oilseeds

Oilseeds are grown for extracting edible oils. The drylands of the Malwa plateau, Marathwada, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana, the Rayalseema region of Andhra Pradesh, and the Karnataka plateau are the main oilseed-growing regions. These crops together occupy about 14 per cent of total cropped area. The main oilseed crops are groundnut, rapeseed and mustard, soyabean, and sunflower.

Groundnut: India produces about 18.8 per cent of the world's groundnut. It is largely a rainfed kharif crop of drylands, but in southern India it is also grown in the rabi season. It covers about 3.6 per cent of total cropped area. Leading producers: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra. Yield is comparatively high in Tamil Nadu (partly irrigated) and low in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

Rapeseed and Mustard: This group includes rai, sarson, toria, and taramira. These are subtropical crops grown in the rabi season in northwestern and central India. They are frost-sensitive, and yields fluctuate from year to year. However, with the expansion of irrigation and improved seed technology, yields have improved and stabilised to some extent. About two-thirds of the area under these crops is irrigated. They occupy only about 2.5 per cent of total cropped area. Rajasthan contributes about one-third of production; other leading producers are Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Yields are comparatively high in Haryana and Rajasthan.

Other Oilseeds: Soyabean is mostly grown in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra — these two states together produce about 90 per cent of India's soyabean. Sunflower cultivation is concentrated in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and adjoining areas of Maharashtra. It is a minor crop in northern India, where its yield is high due to irrigation.

Fibre Crops

These crops provide fibre for cloth, bags, sacks, and other items. Cotton and jute are the two main fibre crops. …