Land is a scarce resource, whose supply is fixed for all practical purposes. At the same time, the demand for land for various competing purposes is continuously increasing with the increase in human population and economic growth.
Land use pattern qt any given time is determined by several factors including size of human and livestock population, the demand pattern, the technology in use, the cultural traditions, the location and capability of land, institutional factors like ownership pattern and rights and state regulation. The land use pattern besides having economic implications has also important ecological dimensions, which if ignored can have disastrous consequences.
The pattern of land utilisation in India is indicated in Table 6.1. The available land is classified into two parts on the basis of its use, viz.
(i) agricultural land and
(ii) non-agricultural land.
(1) Agricultural land:
Agricultural land (also agricultural area) denotes the land suitable for agricultural production, both crops and livestock. It includes net sown area, current fallows and land under miscellaneous trees crops and groves. Agricultural land in India totals a little over 50 percent of the total geographical area in the country. This is the highest among the large and medium-sized countries of the world.
This indicates:
i. The influence of favourable physical factors (like size, extent of plains and plateaus, etc.) and
ii. The extension of cultivation to a large proportion of the cultivable land.
But, because of the large population of the country, the per capita arable land (i.e. land suitable for agriculture) is low: 0.16 hectares against the world average of 0.24 hectares. About 15 per cent of the sown area is multi-cropped.
While, most of the multi-cropped area is irrigated, only one-fourth of the gross cropped area is irrigated. The security provided by the irrigation facilities is a major factor in intensive application of labour and other inputs to obtain high yields.
(2) Non-agricultural land:
This includes:
(i) land under forests and permanent pastures,
(ii) land under other non-agricultural uses (towns, villages, roads, railways, etc.) and
(iii) land classified as cultivable waste as well as barren and uncultivated land of mountain and desert areas.
Trends in Land Utilisation:
Land Use Pattern in India, 1950-51 to 1999-2000:
The physical, economic and institutional framework taken together determines the pattern of land use of a country at any particular time. In other words, the existing land use pattern in different regions-in India has been evolved as the result of the action and interaction of various factors taken together, such as the physical characteristics of land, the structure of resources like, capital and labour available and the location of the region in relation to other aspects of economic development, e.g. those relating to transport as well as industry and trade. Table 6.2 depicts the land use trend based on these nine-fold classification from 1950-51 to 1999-2000.
The main conclusions emerging from the analysis regarding trend of land use in India during the period 1950-51 to 1999-2000 are as follows:
Out of the total geographical area of 328 million hectares, the land use statistics were available for roughly 284 million hectares in 1950-51; however, in 1999-2000 the reporting area is around 306 million hectares. The area, for which data on the land use classification are available; is known as the reporting area.
Area under forests includes all lands classed as forest under any legal enactment dealing with forests or administered as forest, whether state-owned or private, and whether wooded or maintained as potential forest land. The area of crops rose in the forest and grasing lands or areas open for grassing within the forests are also included under the forest area.
There has been perceptible increase in the forest area up to the year 1999-2000. It increased from 40.48 million hectares in 1950-51 to 69.02 million hectares in 1999-2000. In percentage terms, the area under forest, which constituted 14.24 per cent of the reporting area, increased to 22.52 per cent in 1999-2000.
It is apparently indicative of a healthy land-use management. However/ literature indicates that this is not suggestive of a real increase of area under forest “but is due to incremental increase of reporting area under forest”.
Based primarily on nature of land, climatic characteristics and available irrigational facilities, the farmers in India practise different types of farming.
#1. Subsistence Farming:
- Majority of farmers in the country practise subsistence farming.
- It is characterised by small and scattered land holdings and use of primitive tools.
- As the farmers are poor, they do not use fertilisers and high yielding variety of seeds in their fields to the extent they should do.
- Facilities like electricity and irrigation are generally not available to them.
Features of Subsistence Farming:
- The whole family works on the farm
- Most of the work is done manually
- The farms are small
- Tradition methods of farming are followed
- Yield is not very high
- Most of the yield is consumed by the family with very little surplus for the family
#2. Shifting Agriculture:
- In this type of agriculture, first of all a piece of forest land is cleared by felling trees and burning of trunks and branches.
- After the land is cleared, crops are grown for two to three years and then the land is abandoned as the fertility of the soil decreases.
- The farmers then move to new areas and the process is repeated.
- Dry paddy, maize, millets and vegetables are the crops commonly grown in this type of farming.
This practice is known by different name in different regions of India like:
- Jhum in Assam,
- Ponam in Kerala,
- Podu in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and
- Bewar masha penda and Bera in various parts of Madhya Pradesh.
As far as possible governments have tried to discourage this practice of cultivation by tribals due to wasteful nature such as soil erosion caused by it, when soil erosion caused by it, when soils are not under cultivation.
#3. Plantation Agriculture:
- Plantation farming is bush or tree farming. It was introduced by the British in the 19th century.
- It is a single crop farming of rubber, tea, coffee, cocoa, spices, coconut and fruit crops like apples, grapes, oranges, etc.
- It is capital intensive and demands good managerial ability, technical know-how, sophisticated machinery, fertilisers, irrigation, and transport facilities.
- Plantation agriculture is an export-oriented agriculture. Most of the crops grown in plantation agriculture have a life cycle of more than two years.
- Natural rubber, coconuts, oil palm, tea, cocoa, and coffee are all tree crops and take years to mature, but afterwards they are productive for long periods.
- Plantation agriculture is confined within tropical areas, i.e., both sides of the equator.Plantations exist on every continent possessing a tropical climate.
Some of the plantations like tea, coffee and rubber have a processing factory within the farm itself or close to it.
This type of agriculture has developed in hilly areas of north-eastern India, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and in Nilgiri, Anamalai and Cardamom hills in peninsular India.
#4. Intensive Farming:
In areas where irrigation has been possible, the farmers use fertilisers and pesticides on large scale. They have also brought their land under high yielding variety of seeds. They have mechanised agriculture by introducing machines in various processes of farming.
Also known as industrial agriculture, it is characterized by a low fallow ratio and higher use of inputs such as capital and labour per unit land area. This is in contrast to traditional agriculture in which the inputs per unit land are lower.
Remember Intensive Agriculture Development program?
Intensive Agriculture Development program (IADP) was the first major experiment of Indian government in the field of agriculture and it was also known as a “package programme” as it was based upon the package approach.
The programme was launched in 1961 after the Community Development Programme lost sheen. The core philosophy was to provide loan for seeds and fertilizers to farmers. Intensive Agriculture Development program was started with the assistance of Ford Foundation.
The IADP was expanded and later a new Intensive Agriculture Area programme (IAAP) was launched to develop special harvest in agriculture area.
The IADP was expanded and later a new Intensive Agriculture Area programme (IAAP) was launched to develop special harvest in agriculture area.
#5. Dry Agriculture:
Dry farming or dry-land farming may be defined as a practice of growing crops without irrigation in areas which receive an annual rainfall of 750 mm – 500 mm or even less.
Key elements of effective combat with perils of Dryland agriculture
- Capturing and Conservation of Moisture
- Effective Use of Available Moisture
- Soil Conservation
- Control of Input Costs
Dryland agriculture is subject to high variability in areas sown, yields and output. These variations are the results of aberrations in weather conditions, especially rainfall. Alternate crop strategies have been worked out for important regions of the country:
#6. Mixed and Multiple Agriculture:
- Mixed farming is referred to cultivation of crops and raising of animals simultaneously.
- The multiple farming is used to denote the practice of growing two or more crops together.
- In such case a number of crops having varying maturing periods are sown at the same time.
- This practice is followed is areas having good rainfall or facilities of irrigation.
#7. Crop Rotation:
This refers to growing of number of Crops one after the other in a fixed rotation to maintain the fertility of the soil. The rotation of crops may be complete in a year in some of the areas while it may involve more than one year’s time is others.
- Pulses or any leguminous crop is grown after the cereal crops.
- Legumes have the ability of fixing nitrogen to the soil.
- Highly fertilizer intensive crops like sugarcane or tobacco are rotated with cereal crops.
- The selection of crops for rotation depends upon the local soil conditions and the experience and the understanding of the farmers.
Good time to re-visit the nitrogen cycle again!
#8. Terrace Cultivation:
- The hill and mountain slopes are cut to form terraces and the land is used in the same way as in permanent agriculture.
- Since the availability of flat land is limited terraces are made to provide small patch of level land.
- Soil erosion is also checked due to terrace formation on hill slopes.
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