As per the land use statistics 2011-12, the total geographical area of the country is 328.7 million hectares of which 159.59 million hectares is the reported net sown area.
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Cropped Area
As per Agriculture Census 2010-11 The Gross Cropped Area (GCA) was estimated at 193.76 million hectare. The nine States, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and West Bengal together account for about 78 per cent of the Gross Cropped Area in the country.
Irrigated Area
Net irrigated area ( area irrigated through any source once in a year for a particular crop ) during Agriculture Census 2010-11 was total 64.57 million hectare, out of which 48.16 percent is accounted by Small and Marginal holdings, 43.77 percent by Semi-medium & Medium holdings and 8.07 percent by Large holdings. Out of 5 sources ( canals, tanks, wells, tube-wells & other ) of irrigation for which the data was collected Tube-wells (29.16 million hectare ) was main source of irrigation followed by canals (16.19 million hectare).
The gross irrigated area (total area under crops,irrigated once and/or more than once in a year. It is counted as many times as the number of times the areas are cropped and irrigated in a year) came to 87.77 million hectares which was 45.30% of the gross cropped area ( GCA ) while 45.70% of the net area sown was irrigated.
Cropping Intensity
The Cropping Intensity is the ratio of Net Area Sown to the Total Cropped Area. As per Agriculture Census 2010-11 Cropping Intensity works out to 1.37.
Land Holding per farmer
An operational holding is defined as “all land which is used wholly or partly for Agricultural production and is operated as one Technical Unit by one person alone or with others without regard to title, legal form, size or location”. On the basis of operated area, operational holdings in Agriculture Census are categorized as follows:-
| Sl.No. | Category | Operated Area |
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | Marginal holdings | Below 1.00 hectare |
| 2 | Small holdings | 1.00 – 2.00 hectares |
| 3 | Semi-Medium holdings | 2.00 – 4.00 hectares |
| 4 | Medium holdings | 4.00 – 10.00 hectares |
| 5 | Large holdings | 10.00 hectares and above |
The average size of the holding has been estimated as 1.15 hectare. The average size of holdings has shown a steady declining trend over various Agriculture Censuses since, 1970-71.
Size Group wise percentage of number and area of operational holdings are given in the following table.
| Sl.No | Size-Group | Percentage of number of operational holdings to total | Percentage of area operated to total |
| 1 | Marginal (below 1.00 ha.) | 67.10 | 22.50 |
| 2 | Small (1.00 – 2.00 ha.) | 17.91 | 22.08 |
| 3 | Semi-medium (2.00 – 4.00 ha.) | 10.04 | 23.63 |
| 4 | Medium (4.00 – 10.00 ha.) | 4.25 | 21.20 |
| 5 | Large (10.00 ha. & above) | 0.70 | 10.59 |
The concept of agricultural operational holdings does not include those holdings which are not operating any agricultural land and are engaged exclusively in livestock, poultry and fishing etc. About 97.61% of operational holdings were wholly owned and self operated.
Residence
Total number of operational holdings were estimated as 138.35 million. 96.95 per cent of operational holdings, entire operated area was located within the village of residence.
Food Production
In 2013-14, total foodgrain production has been estimated at 265.57 million tones as per the Final Estimates (FE), which is higher by 8.44 million tones than the 2012-13 production and 22.84 million tones than average foodgrain production during the last five years.
Contribution to GDP
The Agriculture and Allied Sector contributed approximately 13.9% of India’s GDP (at constant 2004-05 prices) during 2013-14. There has been a continuous decline in the share of Agriculture and Allied Sector in the GDP from 14.6 % in 2010-11 to 13.9 % in 2013-14 at 2004-05 prices.
The detailed data /tables of Agriculture Census are available in the website of the Department at http://agcensus.nic.in. also check pdf from Agriculture Census Report
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