Net sown area

Also called: NSA, Net area sown · 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

Net sown area (NSA) is the actual piece of land on which crops and orchards are sown and harvested in a year. Each piece of land is counted only once, however many crops it carries in that year [2]. NSA shows how much of India's land really feeds the country. It is also the base for working out gross cropped area and cropping intensity, two key measures of how well farmland is used.

Explanation

Where NSA fits in land-use accounting

• NSA is the ninth of the nine land-use categories. Every hectare of reporting area goes into only one of these classes.
• Reporting area is the area covered by land records in village papers. These papers are kept by village accountants (the patwari or lekhpal) [2].

• The nine categories always add up to the reporting area, not to the geographical area.

• NSA percentages are therefore usually given as a share of reporting area. Reporting area is about 30.8 crore ha, which is about 93% of India's geographical area of about 32.87 crore ha.

• In the Class 10 NCERT grouping of five heads, NSA is a head of its own (head 5). It is the only head that stands for land actually under crops.

What is counted, and what is not

• Counted in NSA:
• Land under field crops in the year.

• Orchards. In the official statistics, orchards are counted in net area sown [2].

• Not counted in NSA:

• Miscellaneous tree crops and groves that are not orchards, such as casuarina trees, thatching grasses, bamboo bushes and fuel groves [2].
• Current fallow (land left unfarmed for one agricultural year or less). It is farmland, but no crop was sown on it in the current year.
• Fallow other than current fallow (unfarmed for more than 1 year but less than 5 years).
• Culturable wasteland (unfarmed for more than 5 years, but it can be brought back under farming).

From NSA to GCA and cropping intensity

• Gross cropped area (GCA): land is counted once for each sowing in a year. It is also called total cropped area [2].
• Area sown more than once = GCA − NSA [2].
• Cropping intensity = (GCA ÷ NSA) × 100.
• Example: a 1-hectare field that grows one crop in kharif and another in rabi adds 1 ha to NSA but 2 ha to GCA. Its cropping intensity is 200.

• A higher value means the same land is used more times in a year.

• What this means: NSA tells you how much land is farmed. Cropping intensity tells you how hard that land is used.

Conditions that raise or lower NSA

• High NSA needs:
• Flat land, such as alluvial plains (flat land built up from silt laid down by rivers).
• Assured water from canals and tubewells.

• Settled, permanent farming.

• Low NSA comes from:

• Steep relief. Hills leave little flat land.
• Dense forest cover.

• Shifting cultivation (jhum): a plot is cleared, farmed for a few years and then left to recover. At any one time much of the land is fallow, so it is not counted as sown.

• Fallows hide some farmland. If other fallow land that is farmed once every two or three years is added, NSA would be about 54% of reporting area (NCERT).

Where it occurs

• Highest NSA (over 80% of total area): Punjab and Haryana.
• Flat alluvial plains.
• Canal and tubewell irrigation.

• The core of the Green Revolution (1960s).

• Lowest NSA (under 10% of total area): Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

• Steep hills, dense forest and jhum.

• In ISFR 2023, eight states and UTs have forest cover above 75%: Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur [3].

• Gaps in the data:

• Most north-eastern states except Assam do not report land use fully. Much of the land there is under community or tribal ownership and shifting cultivation, so there are no regular village revenue papers.
• Areas occupied by Pakistan and China in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have not been surveyed.
• So the NSA picture for the north-east rests partly on estimates. These include Agricultural Census (1995-96 and 2000-01) figures [2].

Don't confuse with

• Gross cropped area (GCA): NSA counts a field once in a year. GCA counts it once for each sowing [2]. GCA is always equal to or larger than NSA.
• Current fallow: this is farmland left unsown for one year or less. It is a separate category and is not part of NSA for that year, even though it is usually sown next season.
• Miscellaneous tree crops and groves: this is farm-related land with trees, but it is excluded from NSA. Orchards are the exception. They are counted inside NSA [2].
• Geographical area: this is fixed and measured by the Survey of India. NSA shares are worked out from the reporting area, which comes from village papers and changes over time.

Prelims Hooks

• NSA counts land once. GCA counts it for each sowing. Area sown more than once = GCA − NSA [2].
• Cropping intensity = (GCA ÷ NSA) × 100.
• Orchards are in NSA. Casuarina, thatching grass, bamboo and fuel groves go under miscellaneous tree crops and groves, not NSA [2].
• NSA over 80%: Punjab and Haryana. NSA under 10%: Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and the A&N Islands.
• Adding fallow land that is farmed once every two or three years would take NSA to about 54% of reporting area (NCERT).
• Trap: NSA is one of the nine land-use categories. "Marginal land" is not a land-use category. "Marginal" refers to farm-holding size (less than 1 ha).

Mains Points

• Unequal NSA across regions (GS-I): NSA is over 80% in Punjab and Haryana but under 10% in the north-eastern hill states and the A&N Islands.
• The causes are relief, forest cover and shifting cultivation.

• Pushing farming out in the north-east must therefore be balanced against forest conservation, since forest cover there is often above 75% [3].

• Food security without clearing forest (GS-III): there is little room left to spread NSA in the plains, and non-agricultural uses keep taking farmland.

• Response 1: bring fallow land and culturable wasteland back into NSA through watershed development, soil-health care and irrigation.

• Response 2: raise cropping intensity on existing NSA, so the same land yields more crops each year.

• Weak data: about 7% of India is outside land-use records, and NSA in the north-east rests partly on estimates [2].

• Response: check revenue records against satellite-based maps (FSI and ISRO/NRSC) so that farm planning rests on correct NSA figures.

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
• Current fallow
• Fallow other than current fallow

Read more

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