BPSC Topic: Land Use Pattern in Bihar

BPSC Topic: Land Use Pattern in Bihar

Bihar falls in the riverine plane of the Ganga basin Area. Because of this topographic nature, land put to agricultural use here is high as compared to other states in India. 

The land use pattern has remained more or less unchanged except for the areas put to agricultural use.

As per staistics the area under forests has remained unchanged at 6.6 percent and so has area under non-agricultural use at 17.6 percent.

The area under net sown area has undergone a marginal change. In 2007-08, net shown area was 60.5 percent as compared to 59.4 percent in 2005-06.

The increase in net sown area is 109 thousand hectares. Cropping intensity has also shown a marginal increase from 1.33 in 2005-06 to 1.37 in 2007-08. This implies an additional 368 thousand hectares under cultivation in 2007-08 over 2005-06.

Land under both fallow and current fallow have registered a decrease in 2007-08. This indicates that, with growing population, the pressure on land is now even higher.

The Land Use Pattern in different districts in 2007-08 reveals that the patterns in different districts of Bihar exhibit substantial variation. This is due to different agro-climatic conditions of the districts.

If we take into account the percentage of net sown area, we would find that in 9 districts more than 70 percent of the land area is under cultivation. These districts are Nalanda (74.4 percent), Buxar (85.6 percent), Bhojpur (79.6 percent), Jehanabad (73.3 percent), Saran (70.9 percent), Gopalganj (70.3 percent), Siwan (75.9 percent), East Champaran (70.4 percent) and Madhepura (72 percent). 

On the other hand, districts with less than 50 percent of net sown area are Gaya (38.2 percent), Nawada (41.8 percent), Munger (37.1 percent) and Jamui (20.4 percent).

The districts where irrigation facilities are at a minimal, the cropping intensity remains low, despite efforts by farmers to increase the cropping intensity. Cropping intensity is the lowest at 1.10 in Jamui.