Lok Sabha Question No. 267 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-15
Subject: Barren Land in States
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shrirang Appa Barne, Sudheer Gupta, Bidyut Baran Mahato, Sanjay Sadashivrao Mandlik

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 267

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 15 TH  SEPTEMBER, 2020

## BARREN LAND IN STATES

267.     SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE: SHRI SANJAY SADASHIVRAO MANDLIK: SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) the  area  of  barren  land  out  of  the  total  geographical  area  falling  under  areas  of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand along with the details of its share/percentage in the total area;
- (b) the  names  of  the  schemes  implemented  for  converting  the  said  barren  land  into arable land during each of the last three years;
- (c) the details of the funds utilized for the said purpose during the above period, yearwise; and
- (d) the  area  of  the  said  barren  land  converted  into  arable  land  through  the  said schemes?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a):      As  per  the  latest  Land  Use  Statistics  for  the  year  2016-17,  the  details  of  area  of Barren  and  Unculturable  land  and  its  share  in  total  geographical  area  for  the  states  of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand is given in the following table:

| State          |   Geographical Area (thousand hectares) |   Barren and Unculturable Land (thousand hectares) |   Share of Barren and Unculturable land in geographical area (%) |
|----------------|-----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Maharashtra    |                                   30771 |                                               1822 |                                                             5.92 |
| Madhya Pradesh |                                   30825 |                                               1344 |                                                             4.36 |
| Jharkhand      |                                    7972 |                                                583 |                                                             7.32 |

Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, MoA&FW

(b):     As per the Seventh Schedule of Constitution of India, land comes under the purview of State Government and, therefore, it is for the State Governments to take suitable steps for  converting  barren  land  into  arable  land. However,  Government of  India  supplements the efforts of State Governments through various programmes.

Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Integrated Watershed Management  Programme  (IWMP)  primarily  keeping  at  Center  Stage  the  rainfed  & degraded area development. DoLR has sanctioned 8214 watershed development projects in 28 States (except Goa) including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand  (now 27  States  and  UT  of  J  &  K  and  Ladakh)  from  2009-10  to  2014-15  covering  an  area  of about  39.07  million  hectare  under  Integrated  Watershed  Management  Programme (IWMP). IWMP was amalgamated as the Watershed Development Component (WDC) of PMKSY in 2015-16. The activities being undertaken through the watershed development projects inter alia include ridge area treatment, drainage line treatment, soil and moisture conservation,  rain  water  harvesting,  nursery  raising,  afforestation,  horticulture,  pasture development, livelihoods for assetless persons, etc.

Apart  from  this,  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  has  developed  location specific bio-engineering soil & water conservation measure, land management techniques, soil  reclamation measures for saline, alkali, waterlogged and acid soils, and selection of suitable crop including agroforestry interventions to reclaim and develop barren lands.

(c):   The State wise details of projects sanctioned, area covered by the projects and funds released  during  last  three  years  and  current  year  as  Central  share  to  States  (including Maharashtra,  Madhya  Pradesh  and  Jharkhand)  under  WDC-PMKSY  are  given  at Annexure-I.

(d):     As per information received from the States, since 2014-15 to 2020-21 (including Q1,  2020),  6.90  lakh  water  harvesting  structures  have  been  created  /  rejuvenated.  An additional area of 14.67 lakh hectares has been brought under protective irrigation. The number of farmers benefited is 31.15 lakh during the said period.

## Annexure referred in reply of part (c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Q. No. 267 due for answer on 15/09/20

## State-wise details of number of projects sanctioned, area covered by the projects and funds released as Central share under WDC-PMKSY

(Area in million ha, Amount in Rs. crore)

| Sl. No    | State             | Sanctioned (from 2009-10 to 2014- 15) @   | Sanctioned (from 2009-10 to 2014- 15) @   | Central share released during the years   | Central share released during the years   | Central share released during the years   | Central share released during the years   |
|-----------|-------------------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
|           |                   | Total no. of Projects                     | Area of the projects                      | 2017-18                                   | 2018-19                                   | 2019-20                                   | 2020-21(As on 10.09.2020)                 |
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh    | 432                                       | 1.810                                     | 123.35                                    | 139.15                                    | 144.390                                   | 13.655                                    |
| 2         | Arunachal Pradesh | 156                                       | 0.467                                     | 9.62                                      | 19.17                                     | 55.71                                     |                                           |
| 3         | Assam             | 372                                       | 1.577                                     | 65.09                                     | 66.55                                     | 49.03                                     | 19.88                                     |
| 4         | Bihar             | 123                                       | 0.612                                     | 19.21                                     | 46.77                                     | 88.367                                    |                                           |
| 5         | Chhattisgarh      | 263                                       | 1.195                                     | 33.45                                     | 57.03                                     | 47.07                                     |                                           |
| 6         | Gujarat           | 610                                       | 3.103                                     | 87.51                                     | 151.84                                    | 77.93                                     |                                           |
| 7         | Haryana           | 88                                        | 0.362                                     | 10.94                                     | 10.00                                     | 7.13                                      | 6.84                                      |
| 8         | Himachal Pradesh  | 163                                       | 0.840                                     | 26.83                                     | 24.04                                     | 66.87                                     |                                           |
| 9         | Jharkhand         | 171                                       | 0.911                                     |                                           | 28.83                                     | 36.77                                     |                                           |
| 10        | Karnataka         | 571                                       | 2.569                                     | 175.69                                    | 101.07                                    | 21.76                                     |                                           |
| 11        | Kerala            | 83                                        | 0.423                                     | 17.83                                     | 13.06                                     | 48.77                                     |                                           |
| 12        | Madhya Pradesh    | 517                                       | 2.937                                     | 134.84                                    | 162.41                                    | 221.278                                   |                                           |
| 13        | Maharashtra       | 1186                                      | 5.128                                     | 279.21                                    | 163.33                                    | 103.00                                    |                                           |
| 14        | Manipur           | 102                                       | 0.491                                     | 13.84                                     | 14.14                                     | 1.46                                      |                                           |
| 15        | Meghalaya         | 96                                        | 0.236                                     | 8.95                                      | 6.69                                      | 1.19                                      |                                           |
| 16        | Mizoram           | 89                                        | 0.373                                     | 22.35                                     | 23.14                                     | 22.27                                     |                                           |
| 17        | Nagaland          | 111                                       | 0.476                                     | 32.08                                     | 38.51                                     | 137.55                                    | 1.105                                     |
| 18        | Odisha            | 310                                       | 1.700                                     | 94.48                                     | 102.17                                    | 83.11                                     |                                           |
| 19        | Punjab            | 67                                        | 0.314                                     | 7.96                                      |                                           |                                           |                                           |
| 20        | Rajasthan         | 1025                                      | 5.764                                     | 243.59                                    | 299.00                                    | 119.43                                    | 203.4571                                  |
| 21        | Sikkim            | 15                                        | 0.066                                     | 1.40                                      |                                           | 2.127                                     |                                           |
| 22        | Tamil Nadu        | 270                                       | 1.368                                     | 82.75                                     | 90.54                                     |                                           |                                           |
| 23        | Telangana         | 330                                       | 1.399                                     | 51.14                                     | 81.93                                     | 33.50                                     |                                           |
| 24        | Tripura           | 65                                        | 0.213                                     | 16.66                                     | 15.89                                     | 10.75                                     | 3.87                                      |
| 25        | Uttarakhand       | 65                                        | 0.346                                     | 9.97                                      | 6.98                                      |                                           |                                           |
| 26        | Uttar Pradesh     | 612                                       | 3.045                                     | 63.93                                     |                                           |                                           |                                           |
| 27        | West Bengal       | 163                                       | 0.693                                     | 15.48                                     | 46.39                                     | 92.87                                     |                                           |
| UTs       | UTs               |                                           |                                           |                                           |                                           |                                           |                                           |
| 28 Jammu  | 28 Jammu          |                                           |                                           |                                           |                                           |                                           |                                           |
| 29 Ladakh | 29 Ladakh         | 159                                       | 0.652                                     | 43.66                                     | 71.87                                     |                                           |                                           |
| Total     | Total             | 8214*                                     | 39.07                                     | 1691.81                                   | 1780.5                                    | 1472.332                                  | 248.8071                                  |

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