POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY TN

essential for intensive farming. Such farms tend to be subsistence oriented. Further, it is
very difficult to raise agricultural income substantially, given the very small holding size.
Land ceilings in Tamil Nadu (4.86 hectares for irrigated land with two crops and
12.14 hectares for irrigated land with one crop and 24.28 hectares for dry land) have
relatively little effect on land distribution due to registration of land in the names of
various family members and even in the names of workers. Nonetheless, the number of
farms greater than 10 hectares is rather small accounting for only about 9 percent of
area.
a. Land Use Pattern
The reported area of Tamil Nadu is around 13 million hectares. Of this, forest area is
2.106 million hectares (2006-07) and accounts for 16.17 percent of total land area of the
state (Table 5.13), as against environmentally desirable 33 percent. However, from 1970-
71 onwards there has been increase in forest area largely due to many afforestation and
conservation schemes implemented by the government. However, at the slow pace of
expansion, it is most likely to be less than 20 percent in the next decades.
Table 5.13: Land Use Pattern in Tamil Nadu
(‘000 hectares)
Details 1970-71 1980-81 1990-91 1999-00 2006-07
Reporting Area 13004 13003 13019 12991 13027
Forests 2013 2022 2155 2134 2106
Barren and Uncultivable Land 832 577 509 476 502
Land Put to Non-agriculture Uses 1489 1747 1820 1978 2160
Permanent Pastures and Grazing
Land 231 159 124 123 110
Land under Miscellaneous Tree
Crops 226 212 234 243 268
Cultivable Waste Land 507 343 290 349 354
Other Fallows 573 459 1044 1140 1493
Current Fallows 964 2120 1264 1085 907
Net Area Sown 6169 5364 5579 5463 5126
Area Sown More Than Once 1215 1109 1053 1054 717
Gross Cropped Area 7384 6473 6632 6517 5843
Source: Tamil Nadu - An Economic Appraisal (various issues).
Area under permanent pastures and grazing and area of under miscellaneous
tree crops and groves are shrinking (i.e., from 4.57 lakh ha in 1970-71 to 3.78 lakh ha in
114