Crops Production and Use of Land for Agriculture in Haryana | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

Haryana as 17th state was constituted in1966. It is one of the two newly created states carved out of the greater Punjab province. Haryana varies between 700 ft to 900 ft above the sea level. An area of 1,553 sq km is covered by forests. The state has a total of 81 cities towns and 6,759 villages. For administrative purpose, the state has been divided into four divisions (Ambala, Rohtak, Gurgaon and Hisar) and 20 districts. The population of Haryana in 2001 was 2,11,44,564 comprising 1,13,63,953 males and 97,80,611 females. It formed 2.05 of India’s population. Population density in the State was 477km2. Haryana is now a leading contributor to the country's production of food grains and milk. Haryana is often called the “Food Mine” of the country. About 80 of the population of the state is agriculture dependent, directly or indirectly. Haryana is self-sufficient in producing food grains and is also a major contributor of food grains in meeting the needs of other states of the country. The world famous Basmati Rice is produced here in abundance. The major cereals produced in the state include wheat, rice, maize and bajra. The crop production of Haryana can be broadly divided into Rabi and Kharif. The main kharif crops in the state include sugarcane, groundnut, maize and paddy etc. The minor kharif crops are chillies, bajra, jawar, pulses and vegetables. The total geographical area of Haryana is 4.421 million hectare and the area under forest is 45000 hectare. The cultivable area is 3.809 million hectare (86.2of total geographical area) and the net area sown is 3.566 million hectare (93.6 of cultivable area). The gross cropped area is 6.504 million hectare and the area sown more than once is 2.938 million hectare with the cropping intensity of 182.39. The net irrigated area is 2.936 million hectare (By canals- 45.3, By Tube wells- 54.2 and by others – 0.5). The gross irrigated area is 5.446 million hectare and the percentage of net irrigated sown area is 82.3. The total number of land holdings is 15.28 lakh out of which 7.34 lakh (46.1) are marginal farmers average land holding is above 2 hectare.