Question : Diversion of Cultivable Land

(a) whether there is an adverse impact on agricultural production due to diversion of cultivable land for non-agricultural purposes such as industrial, housing and power projects, etc. in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the decline in the area of cultivable land in the country during the last three years, State/UT-wise;

(c) whether there has been a sharp decline in the per capita availability of land and several farmers/people have become landless across the country;

(d) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and

(e) the corrective measures taken/ proposed to be taken by the Government to check the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes and to increase the area of cultivable land in the country?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

???? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) & (b): No Sir. Due to technological advances and various initiatives of the Government, the production of foodgrains and horticulture crops has been showing an increasing trend. The production of foodgrains and horticultural crops from 2015-16 to 2018-19 is given in the table below:

Year Food Grains (million tonnes) Horticulture crops (million tonnes)
2015-16 251.54 286.19
2016-17 275.11 300.64
2017-18 285.01 311.70
2018-19 283.37* 314.87**





*As per the Third Advance estimates of production of Foodgrains
** As per Second Advance Estimate of production of Horticulture crops
Contd….2/-







-2-

As per the publication on Land Use Statistics for 2014-15 (latest available), the State/UT-wise details of agricultural/ cultivable land in the country from 2012-13 to 2014-15 is at Annex I.

(c) &(d): As per various Quinquennial Agriculture Censuses conducted by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in 1970-71, 1976-77, 1980-81, 1985-86, 1990-91, 1995-96, 2000-01, 2005-06, 2010-11 and 2015-16 the average size of operational holdings in the country was 2.28, 2.00, 1.84, 1.69, 1.55, 1.41, 1.33, 1.23, 1.15 and 1.08 hectares respectively, which shows that the average size of the operational holdings declined by more than 50% in 2015-16 over 1970-71. The decline in average size of operational holdings has been attributed largely to growing population and fragmentation of land holdings.

As per the Agriculture Census 2015-16 (latest available), the number of operational holders (Marginal and Small) in the country is 86.2 percent with the coverage of 47.3 percent of area under operational holding.

(e): As per the Seventh Schedule of Constitution of India, land comes under the purview of State Governments and, therefore, it is for them to take suitable steps to increase the area of arable land. However, Government of India supplements the efforts of States, through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support.

In order to check decline in the arable area in the country, under the National Policy for Farmers – 2007 (NPF-2007), State Governments have been advised to earmark lands with low biological potential such as uncultivable land, land affected by salinity, acidity, etc., for non-agricultural development activities, including industrial and construction activities. National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy – 2007 (NRRP-2007) has also recommended that as far as possible, projects may be set up on waste land, degraded land or un-irrigated land and acquisition of irrigated, multi-cropped agricultural land for non-agricultural uses may be kept to the minimum and avoided, to the extent possible. Further, Ministry of Rural Development is implementing an Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) for development of rainfed/ degraded areas. The IWMP has been converted to the Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) from the financial year 2015-16.