Operational Land Use Policy for Sustainable Agriculture Production in India

Agriculture is a way of life, a tradition, which, for centuries, has shaped the thought, the outlook, culture and economic life of the people of India. Agriculture, therefore, is and will continue to be central to all strategies for planned socioeconomic development of the country. Rapid growth of agriculture is essential to meet the increasing demand of over one billion population of the country. This challenging task is feasible first by increasing the area of land in agriculture and secondly by enhancing the level of production from presently available lands on sustainable basis. The cultivable land is 182.57 million ha in the year 2005–06, which comprises of net sown area, fallow lands, culturable waste lands and land under miscellaneous tree crops. The total cultivable land was 185.09 million ha in 1980–81 which has reduced to 182.57 million ha in 2005–06 in the country. During the same period, land under non agricultural uses has increased from 19.66 million ha to 24.94 million ha (Increased by about 5.28 m.ha) During the Eighties (between 1980–81 and 1990–91), the annual average increase in non-agricultural use was 1.68 lakh ha whereas during the period, 1999–2000 to 2003–04, the annual average increase in non-agricultural use became 2.25 lakh ha. Thus, pace of conversion has been faster between 1999–2000 to 2003–04. With change in economy and industrialization in India the dependency of the farmers on agriculture has gone down to 70%. As still a large group is dependent on agriculture and Indian farmers are having sentimental attachment with land which is base for their lively hood support, therefore there is urgent need to develop an operational Land Use Policy for sustainable development of Indian agriculture.

Government of India is implementing various Watershed Development Programmes for development of degraded lands in the country. Under these programmes, since inception upto X Five Year Plan, about 50.83 million ha of degraded lands have been developed and parts of such developed land are brought under cultivation to sustain agricultural production, besides increasing productive potential of soil. Although, several watershed development programmes are being implemented, but due to lack of Operational Land Use Policy socially acceptable, the cultivable land which is main Source of food grain production is more or less constant for last two decades. As still a large number of farmers are dependent on agriculture and are having sentimental attachment with land which is base for their lively hood support, therefore there is need to develop and Opeational Land Use Policy acceptable to farmers and can lead to sustainable development of Indian agriculture. In this paper an attempt has been made to collect the all information/database on the above issues including measures taken up by the Government for Sustainable Development of Agriculture.