Land utilisation

 LAND UTILIZATION 

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 at 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 scale regulation.

Major Types of Land Utilization in India :

As in all other countries, land in India is put to various uses. The utilization of land depends upon physical factors like topography, soil and climate as well as upon human factors such as the density of population, duration of occupation of the area,land tenure and technical levels of the people.There are spatial and temporal difference in land utilization due to the continued interplay of physical and human factors. India has total geographical area of about 328.73 million factors.

1. Net Sown Area : Cropped area in the year under consideration is called net sown area. This area has a special significance in an agricultural country like India because agricultural production largely depends upon this type of land.This area is largely due to gentle slope of land, fertile alluvial and black soil,favourable climate, excellent irrigation facilities and high density of population.

Madhya Pardesh has the largest net sown area of19.89 million hectares which is about 13.89% of total reporting net sown area. This is followed by Maharashtra, UP, Rajasthan, AP and Karnataka.

The net sown area has increased from 118.7 million hectares in 1950-51 to142.6 million hectares.The %age of net sown area to total reporting area also increased from 42 in1950-51 462 million hectares in 1999-2000.

2. Area sown more than once :- As the name indicates this area is used to grow more than one crop from year. The percentage area sown more than one cropper year. The %age area soon more than once is low in India as a whole. This is due to infertile soils deficiency of moisture and insufficient use of manures and fertilizers. This type of area comprises of land with rich fertile soils and regular water supply. Large tracts of the Indo-Ganga plain in Punjab, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh in Bihar and in coastal regions have large percentage of area sown more than once.

This accounts for over 34.3% of the net sown area and 16.6%o of the total reporting area of the country.

3. Forests :-This will require massive tree plantations and vigorous restrictions on the reckless felling of trees. According to the expert committee recommendations much of the area reclaimed from the forest for agriculture should be retired from cultivation and brought back under forests to save the land from the adverse effects of deforestation.

Assam, J&K, North Eastern area have large percentage of forest area.

 Forest area has increased considerably from 40.45 million hectares in 1950-51 to69.0 million hectares in 1999-2000.

4.Land not available for cultivation : This class consists of two types of land:-

1) Land put to non-agricultural uses and

2) Barren and unculturable waste

The area put to non-agricultural uses includes land occupied by villages, towns.roads, railways on under water i.e. rivers, lakes, canals tanks, ponds etc.The barren land covers all barren and cultivated lands in mountain and hillslopes deserts and rocky area. These areas cannot be brought under plough expect at high input cost with possible low returns.

AP, MP. Gujrat, UP, Ladakh and Rajasthan have large %age of uncultivated land.

Land not available for cultivation accounted for 13.8% of the total reported area in 1999-2000.

5. Permanent Postures and other Grazing lands:A total area of 11 million hectares is devoted to permanent postures and other grazing lands. This amount in to about 4% of the total reporting area of the country. Grazing takes place mostly in forests and other uncultivated land where ever treasures is available.The area presenting under pastures and other grazing land is not sufficient keeping in view the large population of livestock in the country. About one-third of the reporting area in Himachal Pradesh is under postures, The Proportion varies from 4 to 10% in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujrat,Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Orissa. It is less than 4% in the remaining parts of the country.

6. Land under miscellaneous tree crops and Groves : It includes all cultivated land which is not included under net sown area but is put to some agricultural use. Land under casuarina trees, bamboo, bushes, other groves for fuel etc.which are not in included under orchard are closed under this category.

Orissa has the largest area of in this category followed by UP, Bihar, Karnataka,AP, Assam and Tamil Nadu Land under this category declined sharply from 6.97% in 1950-5l to a me1.41% in 1970-71.

7. Culturable Waste :- The "Wasteland survey and reclamation commit defines "Culturable waste'" as the land available for cultivation but not for cultivation for one reason on the other. This land was used in the past but has been abandoned for some reason. It is not being used at present Due to such constraints as lack of water, salanity on alkalinity of soil, soil erosion water, logging, an un favorable physiographic position.

 Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana as well as in several other parts of the country were used for agriculture in the past but had to be abandoned due to some deficiencies in the soil resulting from faculty agricultural practices.

The land under this category has declined considerably from about 22.9 million hectares in 1950-51 to 13.8 million hectare in 1999-2000.

8. Follow Land : This category includes all that land which was used for cultivation but is temporarily out of cultivation. Follow land is of two types:

1. Current Follow 

2. Follow other than current follow

Follow of one year is called "Current Follow" while that of 2 to 5 years is classified as follow other that current follow". Follow land is left uncultivated from 1 to 5 years to help soil recoup its fertility in the natural way depending upon the nature of soil and the nature of fanning.

 The largest area of follow land other than current follow is in Rajasthan followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Andhra Pradesh has the largest area as current follow, followed by Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka. Tamil Nadu And UP.c

Current follow has recorded an increase from 10.68 million hectares in 1950-51 to 14.79 million hectares in 1999-2000 million hectare.But there had been a sharp decline in follow land other than current follow from 17 4 million hectares in 1950-51 to 11.18 million hectare in 1960-61 

Classification of Land

It is a process which assigns each type of land in an area to its proper class in a system of classes. The classes in the system are defined in terms of the qualities or characteristics with which the classification is concerned. The classification is as follow. World land use survey was drown up under the auspices of UNESCO.

1. Settlement and associated non-Agricultural land (Dark and Light red)

2. Horticulture (deep purple)

3. Tree and perennial crop (Light purple)

4. Crop land : Continental rotation cropping (Dark brown) land rotation (light brown)

5. Improved permanent pasture (light green)

6. Unimproved permanent pasture (yellow).

7. Wood lands : dense (dark green) open (medium green) scrub (olive green) Swampy forest (blue green)

8. Swamps and marshes. (blue)

9. Unproductive land (grey)

In India, till 1950, land was classified into the following five broad classes :

1. Area under forests.

2. Area not available for cultivation.

3. Uncultivated lands excluding current fallows.

4. Area under current fallows, and

5. Net area sown.

i) Forests. These includes all lands classed as forests under any legal enactment dealing with forests or administered as forests, whether state-owned or private and whether wooded or maintained as potential forest land. The area of crops raised in the forest and grazing lands or areas open for grazing within forests should remain included under the forest area.

ii) Area under non-agricultural Uses. This includes all lands occupied by buildings roads and railways or under water e.g. rivers and canals and other lands put to uses other than agriculture.

iii) Barren and Unculturable land. Includes all barren and unculturable land like mountains, deserts etc. Land which cannot be brought under cultivation except at an ex-orbitant cost, should be classed as unculturable whether such land is in isolated blocks or within cultivated holdings.

iv) Permanent Pastures and other Grazing lands. Includes all grazing lands whether they are permanent pastures and meadows or not. Village cannot grazing land is included under this head.

v) Land under Miscellaneous Tree Crops ete. This includes cultivable land which is not included in 'Net Area Sown' but is put to some agricultural use Land under Casurina trees, thatching grasses, bamboo bushes and other groor fuel, etc which are not included under Orchad should be classed under this category.

vi) Culturable Waste land. This includes lands available for cultivation, whether not taken up for cultivation once but not cultivated during the current year andthe last five years or more in succession for one reason or other. Such lands maybe either fallow or covered with shrubs and jungles, which are not put to any use.They may be assessed or unassessed and lie in isolated blocks or within cultivated holdings Land once cultivated but not cultivated for five years in succession should also be included in this category at the end of the five years.

vii) Fallow lands other than Current fallows. This includes all lands, which were taken up for cultivation but are temporarily out of cultivation for a period of not less than one year and not more than five years.

viii) Current Fallows. This represents cropped area, which are kept fallow during the current year. For example, if any seeding area is not cropped against the same year it may be treated as current fallow.

ix) Net area sown. This represents the total area Sown with crops and orchards.Area sown more than once in the same year is counted only once.

The total of these nine classes would be equal to the geographical area according to the village records.

Change in Land Utilization Pattern

Total Geographical Area. Total geographical area of the country is 328.73 million hectares according to professional survey by surveyor General of India. But according to village papers prepared by the revenue staff, reporting area came out to be 305.81million hectares in 2011-12.

a) Area under forests : It includes forest class or administered as forests under any legal enactment dealing with forests whether state owned or private.  

The area under forests has increased from 40.48 million hectares in 1950-51 to 70.01 million hectares in 2011-12 accounting for 21.29 percent of total area. 

b) Land not available for Cultivation. It includes a) barren and uncultivable land and b) land put to non agricultural uses. The first category includes absolutely barren and unculturable land like mountains, deserts etc. which cannot be brought under plough except at exorbitant cost. The b) category includes land covered by buildings, roads, canals, and railways or other appropriated for non-agricultural uses.

Due to increasing pressure of population, urbanisation and industrialization, the land put to non-agricultural uses as constantly been increasing. It was 3.28 percent in 1950-51 which increased to 8.59 percent in 201-12 land not available for cultivation was 34% in1950-5l which declined to 23% in 2010-1l.

c) Other Uncultivated land excluding fallow lands. This category of land classification includes land available for cultivation either not taken up for cultivating,or abandoned later on for one reason or the other and includes a)pastures and other grazing land b) Land under miscellaneous trees andc) Culturable waste.

The land under all these sub-categories is decreasing over time mainly due more area being brought under cultivation. In 1950-51, it has 49 44 millions hectares of land which decreased to 26.09 million in 2011-12

In category a ) 6.67 million hectares of land was under it in 1950-51 which increased to 10.29 million hectares in 2011-2012.Whereas in category b) 19.82 million hectares of land was under it which decreased to 3.16 million hectares in 201-12. In 1950-51, 22.94 million hectares of land was culturable waste which decline to 12.63 million hectares in 2011-12  In 1950-51, 14% of area wunder forest which increased to 23% in 2010-11.

d) Fallow Lands. It denotes cultivable land which after abandonment remain uncultivated over long period called old fallow and those kept uncultivate during the current year are called current fallow.  The current follows showe a increase during the period 1950-51 to 2011-12.  On the other hand fallow lands other than current fallows shows: 3.declining trend during the same period. In 1950-51, it was 17.44 million hectares and it stood at 10.66 million hectares in 2011-12. The fallow lands was 8% 2010-11.

e) Net Area Sown.  The net sown area was highest in the 1990-91 i.e. 142.87 million hectare. From 1950-51 to 1990-91, it shows consistent improvements in net sown area. After that there was no significant increase in net sown area.

f) Gross Cropped Area. The gross cropped area includes total area cover under crops during the year. In case different crops are raised on the same during the year, the same arca is counted more than once. The gross cropped area was 42% in 1950-Sl which increased to 46% in 2010-11.

g) Net Irrigated Area. The net area irrigated has shown marked increase overtime touching a level of 65.29 million hectares in 2011-12 as compared to 20.85 million hectares in 1950-51.

h) Gross Irrigated Area Gross Irrigated Area was 22.56 million hectares in 1950-51 which increased to 63.20 million hectares in 1990-91 which further increased to 54.44 million hectares in 2011-12.

i) Cropping Intensity. The cropping Intensity was 111.1 percent in 1950-51which increased to 130.0 percent in 1990-91 and in 2011-12 it stood at 138.7 percent.

To conclude, we can say, that there is overall improvement in the net area sown, total cropped area, cropping Intensity, Net Irrigated Area, Gross irrigated Area and Area Sown more than once.

Optimal Land Use Pattern

In order to attain optimal land-use pattern, following suggestions have been made :

a)The cropping pattern may be in agreement with the soil and water requirements of the area. Crops standing longer on the land and needing more water. Could be easily substituted by leguminous crops, luceme, pulses, oilseeds which are ready within shorter span.

b) The area like West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Eastern U.P and Assam and the eastern Coastal regions which practice mono culture, should resort to multi-cropping practices due to irrigation facilities in the area. In area producing jute, efforts Should be made for double cropping and particularly introducing high value crops.

c) In the irrigation command areas of North and South India, water consuming Crops like paddy and sugarcane, cotton, wheat, vegetable crops and fruit could be planted.

d) Dry farming should be undertaken in low rainfall area with proper conservation of moisture and reducing loss of moisture by evaporation through deep ploughing and borrowing. Crops like millets, pulses, oilseeds and forage crops mav raised. In these regions, drought-resistant varieties may be cultivated. Sunflowers another crop which can be successfully cultivated crop.

e) Hill slopes in Northern part of the country may be developed with the cultivation of temperate fruits like peach, plum, apricot, apple, walnut, pears as they are Great demand. In Southern parts, vegetables like pea, cabbage, cauliflower, etc may be grown.

f) In arid and semi-arid regions, fast growing fuel trees may be planted along road railway lines and along the canal banks, and pastures raised for live-stock farmin,could be a useful vocation for the local people.

g) The hilly areas may also be utilized for mixed farming and raising of sheep and goat herds. Water harvest technology could be appropriate for this region.