Small decline in farm land not to hit food production: Pawar

A marginal decline in cultivable land has not adversely affected the country's food production, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today.
"On account of shift in area for non-agricultural purposes, the agricultural/cultivable land across the country has marginally declined from 182.44 million hectares in 2007-08, to 182.03 million hectares in 2010-11," Pawar said informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
"However, the marginal decline in cultivable land has not adversely affected agriculture production," he said.
He said 25,89,000 hectare of cultivatable land has been kept fallow which is a normal practice in agriculture for moisture, conservation, control of weeds, pests and disease.

On a query about measures taken to address diversion of farm land to other purposes, Pawar said: "Land comes under the purview of state government and therefore, it is for state governments to take suitable steps to check the diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes."
Under the National Policy for farmers 2007, state governments have been advised to earmark land with low biological potential such as uncultivable land, land affected by salinity for non-agricultural development activities, including industries and construction activities, he said.

The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy 2007 has recommended that, as far as possible, projects may be set up on wastelands, degraded land or unirrigated land, he added.

It has also said that acquisition of farm land for non-agricultural use in projects may be kept to the minimum and avoided to the extend possible in respect of multi-cropped land. Acquisition of irrigated land, if unavoidable, may be kept to the minimum, he added.
To a separate query on whether foodgrain production is not keeping pace with rising population, Pawar said replied in the negative.
"As against the average annual growth rate of 1.32 per cent in the projected population (census 2001), the average growth in foodgrain production in last three years from 2010-11 to 2012-13 has been significantly higher at 5.77 per cent," he said.

The country now produces sufficient foodgrains to meet the requirement leaving significant surpluses for export.
On lower productivity of agri-crops in India as compared to developed countries, Pawar said the major reasons for lower yields in the country are erratic rainfall, inadequate irrigation facilities, low consumption of farm inputs, low use of farm machinery, low adoption of improved package of practices and adverse weather conditions.
Further, the crop duration in India is only 80-110 days as against the crop duration of 180-210 days under temperate climate in developed countries, he added.