NCERT Solutions For Class 12 Geography Chapter 14 Land Resources and Agriculture

(i)  Most of the problems of land resources in India are region specific. Yet, there are some problems, which are common. 

• Erratic rainfall of southwest monsoon cause heavy damage of crops and soil erosion. At some other occasion, rainfall may be deficit and drought conditions may prevail, which may lead crop failure. The rainfall, before or after the time, may also causes deficiency in the crop production. The flash floods in drylands of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan in 2006 are examples of this phenomenon.
• The relief of the area also governs Land resources. Alluvial pains of north India and coastal plains are most suited for agriculture. Mountain and plateau regions are not suitable for agriculture. Therefore, the Himalayan mountain regions have the least developed agriculture and the peninsular plateau has moderate agriculture.  

(ii)  Before Independence, Indian agricultural economy was largely subsistence and witnessed severe droughts and famines. After partition, about one-third of the irrigated land reduced. Therefore, the government took several steps to increase the production of food grains. Government of India to achieve this goal adopted following three strategies.

1. switching over from cash crops to food crops;
2. intensification of cropping over already cultivated land; and
3. increasing cultivated area by bringing cultivable and fallow land under plough.

However, agricultural production stagnated during late 1950s. To overcome this problem, Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) were launched. India began its own Green Revolution program in the early 1960s. Government introduced package technology comprising HYVs, along with chemical fertilizers in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. This strategy made the country self-reliant in foodgrain production. The Planning Commission of India initiated agro-climatic planning in 1988 and emphasised the need for diversification of agriculture and harnessing of resources for development of dairy farming, horticulture, poultry, aquaculture and livestock rearing.

(i) The Barren land covers all barren and uncultivated lands in mountains, hilly terrains, desert lands, ravines, degraded forests, overgrazed pastures, drought-struck pas­tures, eroded valleys, hilly slopes, waterlogged marshy lands, etc.

Cultivable wastelands are the lands, which are not being utilised to their full potential or mismanaged due to various reasons. It includes gullied lands, marshy lands, saline lands, shifting cultivation areas, sand dunes or mining spoils, etc.

(ii) Net sown area is the cropped area in which crops are sown and harvested. However, gross cropped area includes net sown area and area sown more than once. Gross cropped area is always more than the net sown area.

(iii) Agricultural production and productivity can be increased in two ways: by expending cropping areas and by increasing the intensity of cropping. Since much of the suitable land is under the agriculture, there is little scope for bringing in additional land under net sown. Therefore, a high cropping intensity is desirable not only for fuller utilisation of land resource, but also for reducing unemployment in the rural economy.

(iv)  Total cultivable land is measure by adding culturable wasteland, fallow other than the current fallow, current fallow, and net sown area.

(v) The dry land farming is largely confined to the regions having annual rainfall less than 75 cm; but in the wetland farming, the rainfall is in excess of soil moisture requirement of plants during rainy season.

In the dryland farming regions, farmers grow hardy and drought resistant crops such as ragi, bajra, moong, gram and fodder crops; but in the wetland farming, farmers grow various water intensive crops such as rice, jute and sugarcane and practise aquaculture in the fresh water bodies. 

In the dry land farming regions, farmers practise various measures of soil moisture conservation and rainwater harvesting; but in the wetland areas, sometime farmers face flood and soil erosion hazards.

(i) (b) Marginal land

(ii) (c) Increase in notified area allocated for forest growth

(iii) (c) Salinisation of soils

(iv) (d) Sugarcane

(v) (c) Mexico and Philippines