Key Indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India Released

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, conducted a survey on Land andLivestock Holdings in the rural areas of the country as a part of NSS 70thRound during January, 2013 to December, 2013.  Similar survey on the same subject was last conducted by NSSO ten years back i.e. during January, 2003 - December, 2003 as a part of its 59th Round.     NSSO has released the key indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India based on the data collected in the 70th Round Survey.  The detailed results of the survey are planned to be released in two main reports, one on ‘Household ownership and Operational holdings in India’ and the other on ‘Livestock holdings in India’.    The main objective of the survey on Land and Livestock is to generate basic quantitative information on the agrarian structure of the country relevant to land policy. Detailed quantitative information on various aspects of land ownership holdings, operational holdings and ownership of livestock was collected in the survey. The collected information includes area of plots, type of use of plots, leasing pattern, ownership of plots, irrigation facility, type of crop production/farming, number of different types of livestock owned, etc.           The survey covered the entire rural areas of the Indian Union. The results of the survey are based only on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO, consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union Territories.The information of the round was collected in two visits from the same set of sample households. The first visit was made during January 2013– July 2013 and the second, during August, 2013 - December 2013.  A total number of 35,604 households were surveyed in first visit and 35, 337 of them in second visit.         Some key indicators on various aspects of land and livestock holdings by the rural households in the country are as follows: A.    Ownership of  Land ·         During the agricultural year July, 2012- June, 2013, rural India had an estimated total area of92.3 million hectares under household ownership of land and the average area owned per household was 0.592 hectares. ·         Within the rural households, the marginal land owners (i.e. possessing more than 0.002 but less than or equal to 1.0 hectare of land) constituted the highest proportion(75.42%)  of total rural households, whereas the large land owners (possessing land more than 10.000 hectares) constituted the lowest proportion (0.24% ) of the total households.  The landlesscategory (possessing land less than or equal 0.002 hectare) constituted 7.41% of the total rural households. ·         In terms of percentage of total area owned, the largestcategory was the marginal land owners (i.e. possessing more than 0.002 but less than or equal to 1.0 hectare of land) owing 29.75% of the total land area owned. ·         Among all the ownership holdings, the households with self-employed in cultivation as the major source of income, owned the highest share of land (81.4% of the total land area owned) with average area owned 1.104 hectares. Share of land owned by the households with self-employed in livestock farming and the households with self-employed inother agricultural activities were1.5% each of the total land area owned. B.     Operational Holding of Land ·         During the agricultural year July,2012- June,2013, rural India had an estimated 108 million household operational holdings, covering a total area of 98.6 million hectares of land. The average area operated per holding (ha) was estimated at 0.907 hectares.  Trends in cultivationpattern ·         88.6% of the household operational holdings were operated for the whole agricultural year, whereas 8.5% was operated only during July,2012 to December,2012, and 2.9% only during January,2013 to June,2013. ·         The land use pattern shows that the estimated land area used for crop production was around 94.7% during the season July,2012 – December,2012 and around 79% during the season January,2013 – June2013.  Percentage areas of land used for non-agricultural purposes were 2.83% and 13.85% in these two periods respectively.   ·         The highest percentage of area was used for growing cereals in both the periods July, 2012 – December, 2012 (56.21%) and January,2013 – June,2013 (57.74%). The next major use of land was for production of oil seeds (13.75% and 7.34%) and pulses (6.30% and 10.20%) in the two seasons respectively. ·         At all India level, the major source of irrigation was ground water (tube well, well, etc) covering 67% of irrigated land area during July, 2012-December, 2012 and 71% during January,2013-June, 2013. ·         During the season July, 2012 – December, 2012, the major States where land area was mostly affected by flood included Andhra Pradesh (26%), Assam (23%), Bihar (17%) and West Bengal (13%) . Amongst these, agricultural activities were mostly affected by flood in the States of Assam (7%) and West Bengal (4%). Trends in Livestock Farming ·         Among the land used for animal farming (i.e., dairy, poultry/ duckery, piggery, fishery and farming of other animals) the major use of land was made in dairy (53.8% and 69.7%) in July, 2012 – December, 2012 and January, 2013 – June, 2013 respectively. In about, 18.7% and 11.8% of land area was used forfishery during the two seasons. ·         The percentage of area used for all types of farming of animals is 0.97% in July,2012 – December,2012 and 1.69 % during January,2013 – June,2013. Also, 36.69% of household operational holdings reported farming of animals in July, 2012 – December, 2012, and 43.58% reported in January, 2013 – June, 2013. C.        Stock of Livestock/Poultry Birds holding in the country ·         The stock of cattle and buffalo of the country was estimated at 204 million during     2012-13. The estimated population of sheep & goat during the period was about 99 million. ·         The population of poultry birds has been estimated at 255 million during the year     2012-13.