Current fallow

Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 1 "Resources and Development"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

Current fallow is cropped land that is left unsown for one agricultural year or less, so that the soil can rest and get back its fertility naturally. The official definition is cropped area kept fallow during the current year [2]. Current fallow is the first step in a time-based ladder that examiners test often: current fallow, then fallow other than current fallow, then culturable wasteland. It is also one of the nine land-use categories that add up to India's reporting area.

Explanation

How it works: cause → process → result

• Cause: the soil is tired.
• Growing crops season after season takes nutrients out of the soil.

• The farmer chooses not to sow that plot for one season or one year.

• Process: natural recovery.

• The land rests and its fertility slowly builds up again without much help.

• This is a cheap, traditional way to keep soil fertile. It needs no fertiliser and no money.

• Result: the land is usually sown again next season.

• So current fallow is a short break, not a loss of farmland.

Why its area goes up and down

• The area under current fallow is not fixed. It changes from year to year.
• Weather: in a year of poor rainfall, farmers may leave more land unsown. In a good monsoon year, more of it is sown.
• Cropping cycles: in some systems, land is farmed in some years and rested in others.
• In shifting cultivation (jhum), a plot is cleared, farmed for a few years and then left to recover. Much of the land is fallow at any one time.

Where it sits in the land-use system

• It is category (vii) of the nine land-use categories used in land-use accounting.
• Together, the nine categories always add up to the reporting area. This is the area covered by land revenue records (village papers kept by the patwari or lekhpal) [2].
• Class 10 grouping: current fallow and fallow other than current fallow together form the head "Fallow lands". This is one of the five heads in Class 10.
• Class 12 grouping: it is counted as a separate category.
• It is not part of net sown area (NSA). NSA is the land actually sown and harvested, and each piece of land is counted only once [2].

The fallow ladder (how land moves between classes)

• Current fallow: 1 agricultural year or less.
• If the land stays unsown for longer, it becomes fallow other than current fallow: not less than 1 year and not more than 5 years [2].
• If it stays unsown for 5 years or more in a row, it becomes culturable wasteland [2].

Category	Time without farming	Can it be farmed again?
Current fallow	1 agricultural year or less	Yes, it is usually sown next season
Fallow other than current fallow	More than 1 year, less than 5 years	Yes
Culturable wasteland	More than 5 years	Yes, after reclamation (bringing it back under farming)
Barren and wasteland	Never fit with present technology	No, not with present technology

Where it occurs

• North-eastern hill states: Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur.
• Here, shifting cultivation (jhum) keeps much land fallow at any one time.
• Together with steep slopes and dense forest, this helps keep net sown area under 10% of total area. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are also under 10%.

• Most north-eastern states except Assam do not report land use fully. So their fallow land is poorly recorded.

• Punjab and Haryana: net sown area is over 80% of total area.

• Flat alluvial plains, canal and tubewell irrigation, and the Green Revolution (1960s) mean land is rarely left to rest. So the share of fallow land is small.

• Rain-fed farming areas across India: current fallow is higher in years when the monsoon fails.

• All-India picture: if fallow land that is farmed once every two or three years were counted as sown, net sown area would be about 54% of reporting area (NCERT).

Don't confuse with

• Fallow other than current fallow: land left unsown for more than 1 year but less than 5 years. Current fallow is 1 year or less.
• Culturable wasteland: land unsown for 5 years or more. It needs reclamation before it can be farmed again. Current fallow is usually sown again next season.
• Barren and wasteland: land that cannot be farmed at all with today's technology, such as deserts, barren hills and the Chambal ravines. Current fallow is good farmland that is only resting.
• Net sown area: land that is actually sown in the year. Current fallow is a separate category and is not counted in NSA.

Prelims Hooks

• Time limits: current fallow is 1 agricultural year or less. Other fallow is more than 1 year and less than 5 years. Culturable wasteland is more than 5 years.
• Ordering trap: land that is left unsown moves in this order: current fallow → fallow other than current fallow → culturable wasteland.
• Official definition: current fallow is cropped area kept fallow during the current year [2].
• Class 10 head: "Fallow lands" = current fallow + fallow other than current fallow. Culturable wasteland is not in this head. It is placed under "Other uncultivated land (excluding fallow land)".
• Classification trap: current fallow is one of the nine land-use categories, but "marginal land" is not. "Marginal" refers to farm-holding size (less than 1 ha).
• Not in NSA: current fallow is left out of net sown area. Counting land that is farmed once every 2-3 years would raise NSA to about 54% of reporting area (NCERT).

Mains Points

• Fallow land is a reserve for food security (GS-III).
• Fallow land and culturable wasteland are the main room to grow more food without clearing forest.
• Watershed development, soil-health care and irrigation can stop current fallow from sliding into longer fallow and then wasteland.

• Raising cropping intensity, (GCA ÷ NSA) × 100, on land already sown also reduces pressure on land. GCA (gross cropped area) counts land once for each sowing in a year.

• Regional contrast (GS-I).

• In the north-eastern hill states, jhum keeps large areas fallow, and NSA there is under 10%.
• In Punjab and Haryana, irrigation keeps land under crops almost all the time, and NSA is over 80%.

• So any plan to expand farming in the north-east has to be balanced against forest conservation and the needs of community land.

• Data weakness.

• About 7% of India is outside the land-use records. This includes most north-eastern states except Assam, where shifting cultivation is common [2].
• So the real area under fallow is not known fully.
• Response: check revenue records against satellite maps (FSI and ISRO/NRSC) so that land-use planning rests on correct data.

Related concepts

• Reporting area
• Land use categories
• Area classified as forest
• Barren and wasteland
• Land put to non-agricultural uses
• Permanent pastures and grazing land
• Culturable wasteland
• Fallow other than current fallow
• Net sown area

Read more

• Land-use accounting: reporting area and the nine categories