Total cultivable land
Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"
Meaning
Total cultivable land is all the land that can be used for farming. It equals net sown area plus all fallow lands plus culturable wasteland. It shows how much farmland the country has in total, both used and unused. Because it is hardly growing, India must get more from the same land by using land-saving technologies. These raise yield per hectare or let the land carry more crops each year.
Example
In India, total cultivable land fell from 59.5% to 57.7% of reporting area between 1950-51 and 2019-20. Over the same years, net sown area rose from 70.0% to 79.0% of cultivable land, and culturable wasteland fell from 13.4% to 6.8%. So there is little spare land left to bring under the plough.
Don't confuse with
- Net sown area: only the land actually sown in a year. Total cultivable land also counts fallows and culturable wasteland.