Chapter 5

Land Resources and Agriculture

FACTS THAT MATTER

•Different types of land are used for different purposes as per their suitability, Lan used as a resource for production as well as for residence and recreation.

•Land-use records are maintained by land revenue department. Survey of India responsible for measuring geographical area of administration units in India.

•The land revenue records maintained the following land-use categories:

(i) Forests: area identified and demarcated by government for forest growth.

(ii) Land put to non-agricultural use-Is the built up area under settlement. infrastructure, industries etc.

(iii) Barren and wasteland: Land which can not be brought under cultivation with available technology- barren/hilly terrains, ravines, etc.

(iv) Area under permanent pastures and grazing lands: Generally comes under common property resource.

(v) Area under miscellaneous tree crops and groves: Mostly privately owned orchards and fruit trees.

(vi) Culturable waste-land: Land which is left fallow (uncultivated) for more than 5years. It can be reclaimed for cultivation.

(vi) Current fallow: Land which is left uncultivated for one or less than one year-to regain fertility through natural processes.

(vii) Fallow other than current fallow: Left uncultivated for more than 1 year but less than 5 year.

(viii) Net Area Sown: Physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested.

Land-use Changes in India

•Land is a fixed asset and its uses is influenced by nature of economic activities carried out in a region. But the activities may change over time.

•There are three types of changes that an economy undergoes over time, which affect land use pattern:

(1) Size of the economy: Gross over time as a result of increasing population, change in income level, technology etc leading to increase on the pressure of land and thereby bringing the marginal lands under use.

(2) Composition of the economy: Changes over time secondary and tertiary sectors grows faster than primary sector - resulting in a gradual shift of land IOT, agricultural uses to non-agricultural uses.

(3) Continued pressure on Agricultural land: Though the contribution oft the agricultural activities reduces over time, the pressure on agricultural land does not decline as the share of population dependent on agriculture decline very slowly. The number of people to be fed is increasing day by day.

Land Use Changes over the Years

•1960-61 and 2008-09

(i) The changes reported have been derived with respect reporting area and

(ii) a decline in one category usually leads to an increase in so other category.

•our categories have undergone increase - while four have shown decline. Share of area under forest, non-agricultural use, current fallow and net sown area have shown increase.

(I) Area under non-agricultural use has increased due to changing structure of Indian economy. It is increasing at the expense of wastelands and agricultural land.

(ii) a forest has increased due to an increase in the demarcated area.

(iii) Trend of current fallow fluctuates depending on the variability of rainfall and cropping cycles.

(iv) Increase net sown area is due to use of culturable waste land for agricultural purposes.

•Four categories that have registered a decline are barren and wasteland, culturable waste land, area under pasture and tree crops and fallow land.

•basically due to increased pressure on land the wastelands and culturable wastelands have been brought under use.

•Pastureland has gone for farming due to excessive pressure/encroachment.

Common Property Resource (CPR)

•Based on ownership land is divided as private land and common property resource (meant for the use of community). CPRs provide

(I) fodder for livestock

(ii) fuel for household

(iii) Forest products - fruits, nuts, fibre etc.

(iv) Relevant for the livelihood of landless and marginal farmers who depend on them.

(v)Women collect fodder and fruit for degraded CPRs.

•CPRs are community's natural resource where everyone has the right to access and use with specific obligations without any private right over them. Eg. Forest, pasture land, water bodies, public places in the villages.

Agricultural Land use in India

•Land resource is crucial for the livelihood of people depending on agriculture because

(I) Agriculture is land based activity. So lack of access to land is directly linked with poverty.

(ii) Quality of land is directly responsible for agricultural productivity.

(iii) Social value land serves as a security for credit, natural hazards or life contingencies and also adds to the social status.

•total stock of Agricultural land resource is net sown area and all allow land and culturable wasteland.

•scope for bringing in additional area under cultivation is limited so there is urgent need to evolve and adopt land saving technologies, like

(I)Those which raise the yield of any crop per unit area of land.

(ii) those which increase in total output per unit area of land from all crops grown over one agricultural year by increasing land use intensity.

•The cropping intensity is calculated as cropping intensity in percentage = (GCA X 100)/NSA

Agricultural development in India:

•Agriculture is an important sector of Indian economy. In 2001, 53% of population was dependent on it with 57% of land under agriculture (world's share is 12%). Land-human ratio is only 0.31 ha, which is almost half of the world as a whole.

Strategy of Development

•After independence the immediate goal of the govt. was to increase foodgrain production by (0.59 ha).

(i) Switching over from cash crops to food crops.

(ii) Intensification of cropping over already cultivated land and

(iii) Increasing cultivated area by bringing in cultivable and fallow land under plough. Initially this helped in increasing production but later got stagnated. Later on Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and

Area Programme (LAAP) were launched. HYV seeds (from Mexico wheat) and Philippines rice) along with package technology comprising HYVs, fertilizers and irrigation, immediately enhanced agricultural production resulting in Green Revolution (especially in Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and

Andhra Pradesh) - and this increase in food production helped the country become self sufficient in food grains,

•Initially, Green Revolution led to regional disparities in agricultural development- later on it spread to Eastern and Central parts of the country as well.

•Planning Commission initiated agro-climatic planning in 1988 to induce regionally balanced agricultural development in the country.

•Liberalisation and free market economy in 1990s will change the course of agricultural development in India.

Growth of Agricultural Output and Technology

•In the last 50 years there has been a significant improvement in agricultural output and technology.

1. Production and yield of many crops have increased.

2. Irrigation has played a crucial role in enhancing agricultural production. Irrigated area has increased from 20.85 to 54.66 million ha from 1950-51 to 2000-01.

3. Modern agricultural technology has diffused very fast in various area of the country. Consumption of chemical fertilizer has increased 15 times since mid sixties.

Problem of Indian Agriculture

•Problem faced by farmer vary according to agro-ecological and historical experiences of the different regions. Problems range from physical constraints to institutional hindrances.

Some of the problems are as under:

1. Dependence on Erratic monsoon: Irrigation covers only 33% of cultivated area Test of it depends on monsoon for moisture requirements. Poor rainfall also affects Supply of water for irrigation. Drought is a common occurences in dry areas while flood occurs with excessive rainfall.

2. Low productivity: Yield of crop is low compared to the international standard. Because of high pressure on land resource, the labour productivity in Indian b agriculture is also very low.

3. Constraints of financial resources and Indebtedness: Inputs of modern portfollio agriculture are expensive and so the poor farmers can't afford them. So, they fall prey to the moneylenders. Crop failures and low returns from agriculture have obeus forced them to fall in their trap of indebtedness.

4. Lack of land reforms: After independence land reforms were undertaken, but they were not implemented effectively due to lack of strong political will. It resulted in continuation of inequitous distribution of cultivated land- which is a detrimental etc agricultural development.

5. Small farm size and fragmentation of landholdings: More than 60% of landholdings are smaller than one ha in size. About 40% have smaller than 0.5 ha. The average size is shrinking with the law of inheritance. The small sized landholdings are uneconomic.

6. Lack of commercialisation: Most of the small farmers grow food for self- consumption of their families. Only on the irrigated areas modernisation and commercialisation have taken place.

7. Vast Under-employment: Vast under-employment specially in the unirrigated tracts. Seasonal unemployment ranges from 4-8 months. Work is not available even in the cropping season. They do not have opportunity to work through out the year.

8. Degradation of cultivable land: Faulty strategy of irrigation and agricultural development leads to degradation of land and depletion of soil fertility specially in the irrigated areas. Agricultural land lost its fertility due to alkalisation and salinization of soils and water logging. Excessive use of chemicals. e.g insecticides and pesticides has led to concentration of toxics in the soil profiles and contaminated ground water. Soil erosion by water and wind induced by human activities also led to degradation of land.

We hope CBSE/MP Board Class 12th "Geography Part B " Chapter 5 "LAND RESOURCES AND AGRICULTURE" will help you.

Written By - HIMANSHU SHARMA