Lok Sabha Question No. 3311 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-21
Subject: Conversion of Agricultural Land
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Vishnu Dutt Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE & FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE & FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3311

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 21 ST  MARCH, 2023

## CONVERSION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND

## 3311. SHRI VISHNU DATT SHARMA:

- Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE & FARMERS WELFARE कृ षि एवं ककसान कल्याण मंत्री be pleased to state: (a) whether a large amount of agricultural land all over the country is being converted into other non-agricultural uses; (b)  if so, whether the Government has conducted any study or research, which includes climate change scenario regarding food and fodder shortages due to which twin effect of shrinking cultivable land and climate change is taking place; (c)  if so, the details thereof; and
- (d)  the measures which are being taken by the Government to address this problem?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ षि एवं ककसान कल्याण मंत्री (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) As  per  the  Seventh  Schedule  of  Constitution  of  India,  land  comes  under the purview of State Governments. Therefore, State Governments are to take suitable steps  to  check  diversion  of  arable  land  for  commercial  non  agricultural  purposes. However, Government of India supplements the efforts of States, through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support. Under the National Policy for Farmers - 2007 (NPF-2007), State Governments have been advised to earmark lands with low biological potential  such  as  uncultivable  land,  land  affected  by  salinity,  acidity,  etc.,  for  nonagricultural development activities, including industrial and construction. National Rehabilitation  and  Resettlement  Policy  -  2007  (NRRP-2007)  has  also  recommended that  as  far  as  possible,  projects  may  be  set  up  on  waste  land,  degraded  land  or  unirrigated  land  and  acquisition  of  irrigated,  multi-cropped  agricultural  land  for  nonagricultural uses may be kept to the minimum or avoided, to the extent possible.

As per the latest Land Use Statistics-at a Glance  2010-11 to 2019-20, the details of arable land in the country for the year 2015-16 to 2019-20 are given below :

| Year    | Arable Land (in Thousand Hectare)   |
|---------|-------------------------------------|
| 2015-16 | 1,81,371                            |
| 2016-17 | 1,80,923                            |
| 2017-18 | 1,80,817                            |
| 2018-19 | 1,80,624                            |
| 2019-20 | 1,79,993                            |

- (b) to (d)           To meet the challenges of sustaining domestic food production in the face  of  changing  climate,  the  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  (ICAR)  has launched a flagship network project,  namely,  National Innovations  in  Climate  Resilient Agriculture  (NICRA).  The  project  aims  to  study  the  impact  of  climate  change  on agriculture  including  crops,  livestock,  horticulture  and  fisheries  and  to  develop  and promote climate resilient technologies in agriculture which will address vulnerable areas of the country and the outputs of the project will help the districts and regions prone to extreme  weather  conditions  like  droughts,  floods,  frost,  heat  waves,  etc.  to  cope  with such extremes. The salient achievements under ICAR are as follows:
-  ICAR  has  developed  resilient  varieties  in  different  crops  tolerant  to  climatic stresses to improve the food grain production in the face of changing climate. Since 2014, a  total  of  2122  varieties  have  been  released  out  of  which  1752  are  climate  resilient varieties  which  includes  400  abiotic  stress  tolerant  varieties  and  1352  are  biotic  stress tolerant.
-  Sixty  eight  location-specific  climate  resilient  technologies  have  been  developed and popularized for wider adoption among the farming communities.
-  Agricultural  contingency  plans  for  650  districts  have  been  prepared  and  State officials have been sensitized for preparedness through 57 State-level interface meetings during  the  past  eight  years.  Agricultural  contingency  plans  have  been  made  available online for policy makers to take decisions in the event of delayed monsoons and other extreme weather events.
-  District  level  risk  and  vulnerability  assessment  of  Indian  agriculture  to  climate change  has  been  prepared  which  is  useful  for  several  Ministries/  Departments  for prioritizing resources towards developmental programs.
-  Based  on  vulnerability  assessment,  climate  resilient  technologies  are  being demonstrated on farmer's fields in 151 clusters covering 446 villages.
-  At present, ICAR in collaboration with India Meteorological Department (IMD) is issuing Agromet advisories twice a week (Tuesday and Friday) to around 6 crore farmers of the country through Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva program. The advisories are reaching the farmers through m-KISAN portal, WhatsApp groups, SMS services etc.
-  During  the  past  decade,  16,958  capacity  building  programs  were  conducted throughout the country under NICRA project to educate stakeholders on various aspects of  climate  change  and  resilient  technologies,  covering  5,14,816  different  stakeholders

including farmers so as to enable wider adoption of climate resilient technologies.

Further, to deal with the impact of climate change in food grain production, the  Government  is  implementing  National  Mission  for  Sustainable  Agriculture  (NMSA). NMSA  is  one  of  the  Missions  within  the  National  Action  Plan  on  Climate  Change (NAPCC) which aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient  to  the  changing  climate  and  to  sustain  increase  in  production.  To  promote efficient use of water and fertilizer through micro-irrigation, Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme  is  being  implemented  for  which  an  amount  of  Rs.  16815.66  crore  has  been incurred  with  area  coverage  of  70.04  lakh  hectare.  Rainfed  Area  Development  (RAD) scheme is being implemented to promote sustainable Integrated Farming System with an area coverage of 6.74 lakh hectare. for which an expenditure of Rs. 1511.56 crore has been  incurred.  For  promoting  organic  farming,  under  Mission  Organic  Value  Chain Development  in  North  East  Region  (MOVCDNER),  379  Farmer  Producer  Companies have  been  formed  comprising  of  1.89  lakh  farmers  and  covering  an  area  of  1.73  lakh hectare. Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) is being implemented in which so far Rs. 13,300.08 crore has been released with area coverage of 11.26 lakh hectare.  Paramparagat  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (PKVY)  was  initiated  to  promote  organic farming in the country and so far 11.80 lakh ha area has been covered with 16.19 lakh farmers  being  benefitted.  Soil  health  Cards/Soil  Health  Management  Scheme  is  being implemented for which an expenditure of Rs. 1335.68 crore has been incurred so far for various activities for i mproving soil health and its fertility. Till now 22.71 crore grid based soil health cards have been distributed to farmers under the scheme.

With the help of technology interventions, the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural  production  has  been  dealt  with  effectively.  The  foodgrain  production  has continuously increased in the country during last 5 years as given below.

(in million tonnes)

| Year                      |   2017-18 |   2018-19 |   2019-20 |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |
|---------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Production of food grains |    285.01 |    285.21 |     297.5 |    310.74 |    315.61 |

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