Question.
Why is the strategy of increasing cropping intensity important in a country like India?
(NCERT class 12 geography, India People and Economy, Chapter-5. Land Resources and Agriculture)
Answer.
The main reason for adopting the increasing cropping intensity policy in India is for the efficient use of land and reducing unemployment in rural areas.
Cropping intensity is calculated by the following formula:
- Cropping intensity in percentage = (gross sown area / net sown area) * 100;
The net sown area is the land on which at least one crop is sown and harvested in each agricultural year.
We calculate the area in the gross sown area as many times in an agricultural year as the number of times the crops are sown.
Gross cropped area is cumulative of the net sown area where more than one crop is sown.
For example,
If a farmer has 2 hectares of land and has sown 2 crops – one Kharif and one Rabi crop in an agricultural year, on the entire 2 hectares of land, then:
The net sown area will be 2 hectares while the gross sown area will be 2 * 2 (number of crops) = 4 hectares.
As per the land use data for 2016-17, India has 139.4 million hectares of net sown area, while 200.2 million hectares are gross cropped areas. Therefore, the agricultural intensity of India in the year 2016-17 was 143.6 percent.
The need to adopt the strategy for increasing cropping intensity in a country like India is significant because of the following reasons:
- The higher the cropping intensity, the higher will be the production of food grains per unit of land and the higher will be the use of manpower.
- Our India has a very large population and the availability of arable land is low. Therefore, due to high agricultural population density and land being a scarce resource in India, cropping intensification is necessary for the efficient use of land resources.
- Agriculture is important for the rural economy and to reduce unemployment in the rural economy it is very important to increase agriculture intensity.
- Increasing the intensity of agriculture can solve the problems of scarcity of land, rural unemployment, food insecurity, etc.
For the above reasons, there is a need to adopt increasing cropping intensity important in a country like India.
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