(a) whether it is a fact that there is a large extent of unused land in the country;
(b) if so, the details of the extent of unused land, State-wise and district-wise;
(c) whether the Government has conducted any study to know how unused land could be utilized to double the farmers income; and
(d) if so, the details about it and the response of the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
???????????????????????? (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)
(a) to (d): As per Seventh Schedule of Constitution of India, land comes under the purview of State Government. Therefore, the State Governments are to take suitable steps for utilisation of land. However, 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 developmental 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. Acquisition of irrigated, multi-cropped agricultural land for non-agricultural uses may be kept to the minimum and avoided, to the extent possible.
Further, information on Unused Land is not centrally maintained.However, As per the Land Use Statistics, the state wise details of Culturable waste Land and Fallow land (Current Fallows+ Fallow Lands other than Current Fallows)for the year 2018-19 latest available are given in the Annexure. The latest district wise details of Culturable waste Land, Current Fallows and Fallow Lands other than Current Fallows are available at https://aps.dac.gov.in/LUS/Public/Reports.aspx.