Diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes such as urbanisation, roads, and industries has led to a marginal decline in the cultivable land from 183.14 million hectares in 2001-02 to 182.57 million hectares in 2005-06.
During the same period, area under non-agricultural uses has increased from 24.07 million hectares to 24.94 hectares in the country, Minister of State for Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
He said the government is implementing various development programmes like National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Area (NWDPRA), integrated water-land development project for improving degradedlands in the country.
Under these programmes, since inception up to the end of Tenth Plan, an area of 50.83 million hectare has been recovered and part of it has been brought under cultivation, he said.