Net sown area
Also called: NSA · Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Net sown area (NSA) is the area sown with crops and orchards. Land sown more than once in a year is counted only once. It shows how much physical land is under cultivation. It is the bottom part of the cropping intensity formula:
Cropping intensity = (GCA ÷ NSA) × 100
India's NSA is close to its ceiling at about 140 million ha. So future growth must come from higher cropping intensity and higher yields, not from more land.
Example
A farmer owns 10 ha and sows all of it in kharif. In rabi, the farmer sows 4 ha of it again. NSA is 10 ha, while gross cropped area is 14 ha.
Don't confuse with
- Gross cropped area (GCA): GCA counts land once for each sowing. In the example, GCA is 14 ha, while NSA is 10 ha.
Related concepts
- Green Revolution
- High-yielding variety seeds
- Research and extension
- Farm mechanisation
- Crop yield
- Seed replacement rate
- Kharif crops
- Rabi crops
- Zaid crops
- Multiple cropping