Cropping Intensity: Methods and Spatial Pattern – UPSC

• Cropping intensity is the number of crops raised from the same field during one agricultural year. It is the standard measure of how fully land is used over time.
• India’s figure has climbed from 111.1% in 1950-51 to 156.8% in 2023-24.
• The pattern across India is uneven, running from 100% in Manipur to about 201% in Punjab.

Cropping Intensity

Measuring Cropping Intensity

• Cropping Intensity = (Gross Cropped Area ÷ Net Sown Area) × 100.
• Gross cropped area is the cumulative area sown in a year: land sown more than once is counted each time.
• Net sown area counts each piece of land once.
• A simple example:
  • A farmer with 100 hectares sows 90 hectares in kharif, 40 in rabi and 10 in zaid.
  • Gross sown area is then 140 hectares, so the land has been used 1.4 times. Cropping intensity is 140%.
• A higher index means more land sown more than once, so it also shows how efficiently land is used.
• A village example makes the same point. If 700 hectares carry a rabi crop and 500 a kharif crop on 1,000 hectares of net sown land, intensity is 120%.

Why It Matters

• India has a very large farm area, the world’s second largest in agricultural land.
• The land budget of 2023-24 shows how little slack there is:
  • Net sown area was about 45.3% of the reporting area.
  • Forests took about 23.5%.
  • Culturable wasteland was about 3.8%.
  • Permanent pastures and grazing land were about 3.3%.
  • Older figures gave 51% under cropping, 20% forest, 6% wasteland and 4–5% pasture.
• The potential to add cultivable area is low, while demand for food and industrial crops keeps rising. Raising cropping intensity is therefore the main route left to higher output.

Trend in India

• The rise comes from area sown more than once, which grew from 13.15 million hectares in 1950-51 to 78.89 million hectares in 2023-24, while net sown area has barely moved.
• Older figures of about 135% for 2001 and 145% “at present” fit the climb, which has since gone further.
• Inputs lie behind this rise: irrigation, fertilizers, early-maturing seeds and modern farming.
• The decade from 2000-01 was slow, with intensity moving only from 131.1% to 137.3% in 2009-10, a poor monsoon year. The sharpest gain came after 2018-19, as gross cropped area rose by about 18 million hectares in four years.

Methods to Increase Cropping Intensity

• The following inputs and methods raise a region’s cropping intensity:
  • Irrigation facilities. Assured water also makes larger fertilizer doses worthwhile, and so shrinks fallow land.
  • High-yielding varieties with a short growth period.
  • Cropping methods such as relay cropping, mixed farming and strip cropping.
  • Modern inputs: chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides.
  • Farm mechanisation.
  • Conservation methods for soil and water.
  • Commercialisation: trade and capitalistic farming.
• A rise in cropping intensity gives farmers more cash and buying power, which lets them cultivate more.
• These methods work through the cropping systems in use, such as multiple and sequential cropping.

Five Generalisations on Spatial Variation

• (1) Modern inputs and technology: cropping intensity rises directly with their use. The older figures below show this, with Punjab having the highest level of mechanization.

• (2) Labour-intensive farming: intensity tends to be higher where it is found. West Bengal and Bihar have plentiful labour, and the unemployed work on the land for a livelihood.
• (3) Subsistence farming and crop diversity: subsistence farming grows more kinds of crops, and such regions have greater intensity, as in northern Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Malabar coast.
• (4) Climate: its control is plain, and wet areas have higher intensity.
• (5) Soil and land capability: rich alluvial soils with higher land capability have higher intensity. Related points follow:
  • River valleys and deltas have high intensity, because of assured water and fertile soil.
  • Regions of high population density have high intensity.
  • Regions with a high land-man ratio have low intensity.
  • Government policies on subsidies and infrastructure also decide the outcome.

Spatial Pattern of Cropping Intensity

• India can be divided into four zones on an index of cropping intensity.

• This map shows 2009-10, in five classes of its own. Punjab 189.4, Sikkim 186.0, West Bengal 181.3 and Haryana 178.9 stood highest among States, with India at 137.3%.
• In that year, Manipur and Mizoram stood at 100%. Several other north-eastern States, along with Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, stayed below 120%.
• Delhi recorded about 204%, because vegetables for its city market are grown in both seasons.
• The biggest changes since then are in Madhya Pradesh (143.0 to 193.5), Gujarat (108.6 to 151.3) and Rajasthan (128.1 to 152.2).
• Tamil Nadu stood at 113.9% in 2009-10 and 128.6% in 2023-24, which places it in the moderate zone.
• The account below follows the classic grouping of regions. Membership has since shifted, as the table above shows.

Region I: Very High Cropping Intensity

• This region classically covers Punjab, Haryana and West Bengal.
• The Punjab and Haryana plains are sub-humid, with good alluvial soil and moderate to high land capability.
• Hydrology is enough to support the cropping pattern.
• After the Green Revolution, the use of modern inputs and technology rose considerably.
• Other features: developed rural infrastructure, command area development, government incentives and finance, capitalistic farming and larger holdings with mechanisation.
• The region has moved beyond wheat monoculture. Rice, cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds and gram now share the land.
• Productivity is higher, and agricultural output, per capita yield and per capita money income from land are the highest.
• In West Bengal, parts of the delta raise three rice crops a year.

Region II: High Cropping Intensity

• This region classically covers Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Keralam and Tamil Nadu.
• Humid climate and good fertile soil give high land capability.
• Much of it falls in land class I, which can be cropped three times a year without loss of fertility.
• Hydrology supports farming all year, and the soil is renewed almost every year.
• Partial use of modern inputs and partial mechanisation have kept farming sustainable.
• The carrying capacity of land is very high. Productivity in most of it is lower than in Tamil Nadu and Punjab because of social factors: high population density, a low land-man ratio and subsistence farming, which itself pushes intensity up.
• Major crops are rice, wheat, pulses, oilseeds and maize, with greater diversity because farming is largely for subsistence.

Region III: Moderate Cropping Intensity

• This region classically covers Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
• The climate is sub-humid to semi-arid.
• Soil capability is moderate, and irrigation can bring greater yield.
• The land-man ratio is moderate to high, and the land’s carrying capacity is low.
• Dry land agriculture needs expansion.
• Major crops are millets, groundnut, tobacco and oilseeds.
• Where river valleys and deltas are irrigated, intensity reaches about 190, as in the Krishna-Godavari delta, the tube-well tracts of Maharashtra and the Kaveri basin of Karnataka.
• Per hectare yield places its productivity below Class I and Class II States.

Region IV: Low Cropping Intensity

• This region classically covers Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, the north-eastern States, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.
• These States face physiographic or climatic constraints, and their land capability falls in classes 5 to 8.
• The cropping pattern is highly diversified.
• Tribal economy and hazards such as landslides, excessive rainfall and cloudbursts are key constraints.
• Productivity is low, along with the output per farm worker and the money value earned from farming.
• Per-hectare yield is moderate to poor.

Role of Modern Inputs: Punjab and Gujarat

• The two States can be compared on irrigation, mechanization, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and rural electrification.
• Modern inputs have transformed the farm pattern, though the physical quality of land and the soil’s response to inputs still count.
• Climate and hydrology remain significant determinants of cropping intensity, yet inputs and technology have changed the character of farming across regions.

• Irrigation: Punjab has almost 99.8% of its cultivated land under irrigation in older figures, and today all of its net sown area. Gujarat relies on tube wells and tanks, and its hydrology differs from one part to another. Its irrigated share was only 23% in older figures.
• Mechanization: older figures give one tractor for every 7 hectares in Punjab, the best in India, against one for 150 hectares in Gujarat.
• Fertilizer: Punjab’s older figure of 92 kg per hectare compares with Gujarat’s 18 kg. Both have risen since, and Punjab still uses nearly twice as much.
• Result: Punjab, at 196% in older figures, kept the highest intensity among States. Gujarat stood at only 124%, well below the national average of 145%.
• Gujarat’s gap has narrowed sharply as its irrigated area has grown, and it now lies just below the national figure.