Exam-useful questions from this chapter, grouped by marks, each with a full model answer. Try writing the answer yourself first, then check it against this one.
1 1-Mark Questions
Q. Define reporting area.
Answer: Reporting area is the area for which land-use data are recorded in the land revenue records; it differs somewhat from the geographical area, which is fixed by the Survey of India’s own measurements.
Q. Define Common Property Resources (CPRs).
Answer: CPRs are a community’s natural resources over which every member has the right of access and usage, subject to specified obligations, without anybody having individual property rights over them, e.g. community forests, pasture lands and village water bodies.
Q. What is meant by Cropping Intensity?
Answer: Cropping Intensity is the extent to which the net sown area is cropped more than once in an agricultural year. It is calculated as Cropping Intensity (%) = Gross Cropped Area ÷ Net Sown Area × 100.
Q. Define Net Area Sown.
Answer: Net Area Sown is the physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested in an agricultural year.
Q. What is culturable wasteland?
Answer: Culturable wasteland is land left fallow (uncultivated) for more than five years; it can be brought back under cultivation after improving it through reclamation practices.
Q. Define current fallow.
Answer: Current fallow is land left without cultivation for one agricultural year or less, a practice adopted so that the land can recoup its lost fertility through natural processes.
Q. What is dryland farming?
Answer: Dryland farming is rainfed farming largely confined to regions with an annual rainfall of less than 75 cm, growing hardy, drought-resistant crops such as ragi, bajra, moong, gram and guar.
Q. What is meant by total cultivable land?
Answer: Total cultivable land is the estimated total stock of agricultural land resources, arrived at by adding up net sown area, all fallow lands, and culturable wasteland.
2 2-Mark Questions
Q. What are the three types of economic change that affect land-use, according to the chapter?
Answer: (i) The size of the economy grows over time, increasing pressure on land so that marginal lands come under use. (ii) The composition of the economy changes, with the secondary and tertiary sectors growing faster than agriculture, shifting land from agricultural to non-agricultural uses. (iii) Even as agriculture’s contribution to the economy falls, the pressure on land for agriculture does not decline, since the population depending on agriculture falls more slowly than agriculture’s GDP share, and more people need to be fed.
Q. Distinguish between protective and productive irrigation.
Answer: Protective irrigation aims to protect crops from the adverse effects of moisture deficiency by supplementing rainfall over the maximum possible area, using a relatively low water input per unit area. Productive irrigation aims to provide sufficient soil moisture to achieve high productivity in the cropping season, using a higher water input per unit area of cultivated land.
Q. Why does the area recorded under “forests” increase in the land revenue records without any real increase in actual forest cover?
Answer: The land revenue records classify as “forest” the area the Government has identified and demarcated for forest growth, which is different from the area under actual forest cover. So an increase in the demarcated/notified area shows up as an increase in this category even though the real forest cover on the ground has not increased.
Q. What is the significance of Common Property Resources (CPRs) for the rural poor?
Answer: CPRs are of particular importance to landless and marginal farmers, since many depend on income from livestock for which CPRs provide fodder, given their limited access to land. CPRs are also important for women, as they do most of the fodder and fuel collection from these areas in rural India.
Q. Distinguish between net sown area and gross cropped area.
Answer: Net Sown Area is the physical extent of land sown with crops at least once in an agricultural year. Gross Cropped Area is the total area sown, counting a plot of land more than once if more than one crop is grown on it in the same year, and the ratio of the two (as Cropping Intensity) shows how intensively land is being used.
Q. Why is the scope for bringing additional land under net sown area limited in India?
Answer: Table 3.1 shows that the total stock of cultivable land (net sown area + all fallow lands + culturable wasteland) has declined marginally as a share of the reporting area, from 59.5% in 1950-51 to 57.7% in 2019-20, while culturable wasteland, the main reserve that could still be brought under the plough, has already fallen from 8.0% to 3.9%. Land is fixed in area and non-agricultural uses keep growing, so the chapter concludes that the scope for bringing additional land under net sown area is limited and stresses the urgent need for land-saving technologies.
Q. Give two reasons why the pressure on land for agricultural activities does not decline even as agriculture’s contribution to the economy falls.
Answer: (i) In developing countries, the share of population dependent on agriculture usually declines much more slowly compared to the decline in agriculture’s share in GDP. (ii) The number of people that the agricultural sector has to feed keeps increasing day by day.
3 4-Mark Questions
Q. Describe the five land-use categories that increased between 1950-51 and 2019-20, with the reasons for their increase.
Answer: Five categories increased: area under forests (17.0% to 23.4%), area under non-agricultural uses (3.2% to 9.1%), permanent pasture and grazing land (2.3% to 3.4%), current fallow (3.7% to 4.5%) and net area sown (41.7% to 45.6%). The rate of increase is highest for non-agricultural uses, due to the changing structure of the Indian economy (growing industrial and services sectors) and expansion of urban and rural settlements. The increase in forests reflects an increase in the demarcated area under forest, not actual forest cover. The increase in current fallow cannot be explained from just two data points, since it fluctuates with rainfall variability and cropping cycles. The increase in net area sown is a recent phenomenon, due to culturable wasteland being brought under agriculture, reversing an earlier slow decrease.
Q. Describe the four land-use categories that declined between 1950-51 and 2019-20, with the reasons for their decline.
Answer: Four categories declined: barren and wasteland (13.4% to 5.4%), culturable wasteland (8.0% to 3.9%), area under tree crops and groves (6.9% to 1.0%), and fallow other than current fallow (6.1% to 3.7%). As pressure on land increased from both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, wastelands and culturable wastelands were increasingly brought under use and witnessed a decline over time. The decline in land under tree crops and groves is explained by pressure from agricultural land needs.
Q. Explain the three cropping seasons of India, with the crops grown in each.
Answer: There are three distinct crop seasons in the northern and interior parts of the country. Kharif (June-September) largely coincides with the south-west monsoon and grows tropical crops such as rice, cotton, jute, jowar, bajra and tur. Rabi (October-March) begins with the onset of winter and grows temperate and subtropical crops such as wheat, gram and mustard, using the low temperature conditions of the season. Zaid is a short-duration summer season beginning after the rabi harvest, during which watermelons, cucumbers, vegetables and fodder crops are grown on irrigated land. In southern India, this three-fold distinction does not exist, since temperatures stay high enough for tropical crops to be grown at any time given sufficient soil moisture, allowing the same crop to be grown up to three times a year.
Q. Explain the classification of farming based on the source of moisture for crops.
Answer: On the basis of the main source of moisture, farming is classified as irrigated and rainfed (barani). Irrigated farming is further divided by objective into protective irrigation, which supplements rainfall over the maximum possible area to guard against moisture deficiency, and productive irrigation, which uses a higher water input per unit area to achieve high productivity. Rainfed farming is classified by adequacy of soil moisture into dryland farming, confined to regions with annual rainfall below 75 cm, growing hardy crops like ragi, bajra, moong, gram and guar with soil-moisture conservation measures; and wetland farming, in regions where rainfall exceeds the soil moisture requirement, facing flood and erosion hazards, growing water-intensive crops such as rice, jute and sugarcane, along with aquaculture.
Q. Discuss why the land resource is more crucial to the livelihood of people depending on agriculture than to people in other sectors.
Answer: The chapter gives three reasons. First, agriculture is a purely land-based activity, unlike secondary and tertiary activities, so the contribution of land to agricultural output is much greater than its contribution to output in other sectors; hence lack of access to land is directly correlated with rural poverty. Second, the quality of land has a direct bearing on agricultural productivity, which is not true of most other activities. Third, in rural areas land ownership has a social value beyond its productive use, serving as a security for credit, natural hazards or life contingencies, and also adding to social status.
Q. Explain the Green Revolution: what it was, where it began, and its effects on Indian agriculture.
Answer: By the mid-1960s, new High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of wheat (from Mexico) and rice (from the Philippines) became available. India adopted a package technology of HYVs along with chemical fertilisers in the irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, with assured soil moisture through irrigation as the basic pre-requisite. This strategy raised foodgrain production at a very fast rate and came to be called the ‘Green Revolution’. It gave a fillip to agro-input industries, agro-processing and small-scale industries, and made the country self-reliant in foodgrain production. However, it was initially confined to irrigated areas, leading to regional disparities in agricultural development until the 1970s, after which the technology spread to the Eastern and Central parts of the country.
Q. Describe any four problems of Indian agriculture related to natural and production constraints.
Answer: (i) Dependence on erratic monsoon: irrigation covers only about 33 per cent of the cultivated area, so the rest depends directly on rain, making the country vulnerable to both droughts and floods (e.g. the 2006 and 2017 flash floods in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan). (ii) Low productivity: yields of most crops are much lower than in the USA, Russia and Japan, and labour productivity is also low because of high pressure on land, especially in rainfed drylands. (iii) Vast underemployment: seasonal unemployment of 4 to 8 months is common in unirrigated tracts, since agricultural operations are not labour-intensive round the year. (iv) Degradation of cultivable land: faulty irrigation and development strategies have caused alkalisation, salinisation and waterlogging, and excessive pesticide use has left toxic concentrations in the soil.
4 6-Mark Questions
Q. Describe, in detail, the nine land-use categories used in India’s Land Revenue Records.
Answer: (i) Forests: area classified as forest, which may differ from actual forest cover since it is the area demarcated by the Government for forest growth. (ii) Barren and Wastelands: land such as barren hilly terrain, desert land or ravines that cannot be brought under cultivation with available technology. (iii) Land put to Non-agricultural Uses: land under settlements, infrastructure (roads, canals) and industries, which increases as the secondary and tertiary sectors expand. (iv) Area under Permanent Pastures and Grazing Lands: mostly owned by the village Panchayat or the Government, and classified as a Common Property Resource. (v) Area under Miscellaneous Tree Crops and Groves: mostly privately owned land under orchards and fruit trees, not included in net sown area. (vi) Culturable Wasteland: land left fallow for more than five years, which can be reclaimed for cultivation. (vii) Current Fallow: land left uncultivated for one agricultural year or less, to let it recoup fertility naturally. (viii) Fallow other than Current Fallow: cultivable land left uncultivated for more than one but less than five years. (ix) Net Area Sown: the physical extent of land on which crops are actually sown and harvested.
Q. Trace the development of India’s agricultural policy from before Independence to the present day.
Answer: Before Independence, Indian agriculture was largely subsistence-based, with a dismal performance in the first half of the 20th century marked by severe droughts and famines; Partition also sent about one-third of undivided India’s irrigated land to Pakistan. After Independence, the immediate goals were to switch from cash crops to food crops, intensify cropping on already cultivated land, and bring cultivable and fallow land under the plough, but production stagnated by the late 1950s, prompting the launch of the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP). Two consecutive droughts in the mid-1960s caused a food crisis and foodgrain imports, but the availability of HYVs of wheat (Mexico) and rice (Philippines) by then let India launch the package technology of HYVs and chemical fertilisers in irrigated Punjab, Haryana, western UP, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, sparking the ‘Green Revolution’, which made India self-reliant in foodgrain production, though initially confined to irrigated areas till it spread east and central by the 1970s. In the 1980s, the Planning Commission focused on rainfed-area problems and initiated agro-climatic planning in 1988 for regionally balanced development, alongside promoting diversification into dairy, poultry, horticulture, livestock and aquaculture. The 1990s saw liberalisation and free-market policies shape agriculture further, and more recently the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) has promoted productive, sustainable, remunerative and climate-resilient farming through location-specific integrated farming and soil/moisture conservation, alongside organic farming under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and the Rashtriya Vikas Yojana (RKVY). Over the last 50 years, production and yield of rice and wheat have risen impressively, expansion of irrigation has been crucial to introducing modern technology, and chemical fertiliser use has risen 15 times since the mid-1960s.
Q. Give a detailed account of India’s major cereal crops: rice, wheat, jowar, bajra and maize.
Answer: Cereals occupy about 54 per cent of India’s total cropped area; India produces about 11 per cent of world cereals, ranking third after China and the U.S.A. Rice, a crop of tropical humid areas grown up to 2,000 m altitude, occupies about one-fourth of the cropped area; India contributes 22.07 per cent of world rice production, ranking second after China (2018), with West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab leading, and high yields in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Kerala. Wheat, a temperate rabi crop grown on about 14 per cent of cropped area, contributes 12.8 per cent of world production (2017), with about 85 per cent of its area in north and central India; Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan lead, with very high yields (over 4,000 kg/ha) in Punjab and Haryana. Coarse cereals together occupy about 16.5 per cent of cropped area; jowar alone accounts for about 5.3 per cent and is grown mainly in Maharashtra (over half the national output), Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Bajra, a hardy, drought-resistant crop of the hot, dry north-west, occupies about 5.2 per cent of cropped area, led by Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Maize, grown almost everywhere except Punjab and the north-east, occupies about 3.6 per cent of cropped area, led by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, with higher yields in the south declining towards central India.
Q. Discuss the institutional and structural problems of Indian agriculture: financial constraints and indebtedness, lack of land reforms, small farm size and fragmentation, and lack of commercialisation.
Answer: Constraints of financial resources and indebtedness: modern agricultural inputs are expensive, and marginal and small farmers, with negligible savings, are forced to borrow from institutions and moneylenders; crop failures and low returns then trap them in indebtedness. Lack of land reforms: under the unequal land distribution of the British-era Mahalwari, Ryotwari and Zamindari systems (Zamindari being the most exploitative), post-Independence land reforms were accorded priority but not implemented effectively due to weak political will and pressure from landlord lobbies, so an inequitable distribution of cultivable land persists. Small farm size and fragmentation of landholdings: there are a large number of marginal and small farmers, with average holding size shrinking under population pressure; many states have never carried out consolidation of holdings even once, and where it was done once, land has fragmented again across generations, making small holdings uneconomic. Lack of commercialisation: a large number of farmers, especially small and marginal ones, grow foodgrains mainly for self-consumption rather than the market, and modernisation and commercialisation of agriculture have largely been confined to irrigated areas.
5 Case Studies
(A) 1 mark Name any two examples of Common Property Resources given in the passage.
Answer: Community forests and pasture lands (village water bodies and other public spaces are also named).
(B) 1 mark According to the passage, who exercises rights of use and management over a CPR?
Answer: A group larger than a household or family unit.
(C) 2 marks Why are CPRs particularly important for landless and marginal farmers and for women, according to the chapter?
Answer: Many landless and marginal farmers depend on income from livestock, for which CPRs provide fodder, given their limited access to land of their own. CPRs are also important for women, since most fodder and fuel collection in rural areas is done by them, often requiring long hours at a degraded CPR site.
(A) 1 mark What percentage of India’s cultivated area is covered by irrigation, according to the passage?
Answer: About 33 per cent.
(B) 1 mark In which three states did the flash floods of 2006 and 2017 mentioned in the passage occur?
Answer: Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
(C) 2 marks Explain, using the passage, why even areas of high annual rainfall in India remain vulnerable to both drought and flood.
Answer: Because only about a third of the cultivated area is irrigated, the rest depends directly on rainfall, and a poor south-west monsoon also cuts the canal-water supply for irrigation. Even areas that receive high annual rainfall experience considerable year-to-year fluctuations, which makes them vulnerable to both droughts and occasional floods, which the chapter calls the ‘twin menace’ of Indian agriculture.