Land Utilization and cropping pattern in Madhya Pradesh :

Land Utilisation Prior to the bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh in 2000-01, the total geographical area of the state was 44.3 million hectares. Out of this, an area of 13.5 million hectares was earmarked for Chhattisgarh, leaving Madhya Pradesh with an area of 30.8 million hectares. Land use over a period of time shows that the pattern of land use in MP has undergone only a small change since the early 2000s. The area under forests has remained virtually the same, while the net sown area has increased marginally from 47.7 per cent (14.7 million hectares) of the geographical area in (Triennium Ending) TE 2002-03 to 50.0 per cent in TE 2014-15 (15.4 million hectares) and area unavailable for cultivation increased from 10.6 per cent of geographical area to 11.3 per cent of geographical area.

Further, fallow land registered a decline from 4.6 per cent (1.5 million hectares) to 2.8 per cent (0.9 million hectares) in the same period, while other non- cultivable land such as permanent pastures, grazing land, miscellaneous tree crops and groves, and culturable waste land declined marginally from 8.8 per cent to 7.7 per cent. The fallow land and cultivable lands together form the agricultural potential of the state and can be brought under cultivation by the use of technology and irrigation.

Cropping Pattern Madhya Pradesh :

Cropping Pattern Madhya Pradesh is primarily a food grain growing state with around 62 per cent of its gross cropped area (GCA) devoted to food grains and 32 per cent to oilseeds in TE 2014-15. Within food grains, a larger area is devoted to cereals (39.4 per cent of GCA) as compared to pulses (23 per cent). Wheat is the most important cereal grown in the state, with around 24 percent of GCA devoted to the crop. Within pulses, gram is the chief pulse crop grown with around 13 per cent of GCA dedicated to the crop (63 per cent of pulse area), followed by arhar (2 per cent of GCA and 10 per cent of pulse area). Wheat is the major crop grown during the rabi season and it is intercropped with gram while in the Kharif season, MP mostly grows oilseeds, specifically soybean. Around 25.4 per cent of GCA is devoted to soybean. 

Although Madhya Pradesh is one of the major food grain producing regions of India, there has been an increasing trend towards the cultivation of horticultural crops as a cash crop. Over the period from 2005-06 to 2014-15, the proportion of area under horticulture crops has jumped from 2 per cent to 6 per cent. Around 43 per cent of the total horticulture area is devoted to vegetables, 37 per cent to spices, 15 per cent to fruits and 5.3 percent to medicinal and aromatic plants and flowers. There has been a significant expansion of area under vegetables in MP after 2010-11. Vegetable acreage increased from 284 thousand hectares in 2010-11 to 507 thousand hectares in 2011-12, a growth rate of around 78 per cent .This has almost doubled the share of area under vegetables in GCA from 1.3 per cent in 2010-11 to 2.3 per cent in 2011-12. While the expansion of area under vegetables was sudden and took place after 2010-11, in the case of fruits, the expansion began as early as 2008-09. The area under fruit cultivation increased from 47 thousand hectares in 2007-08 to 92 thousand hectares in 2008-09.

An important characteristic of Madhya Pradesh is that different crops can be grown in different parts of the state during different seasons, allowing for uninterrupted agricultural activities throughout the year. Broadly, the state can be divided into following five distinctive crop zones:

(i) Cotton/Jowar – Cotton/jowar crops can be grown in the western, north-western and south western parts of MP, where medium and deep soils are prevalent.

(ii) Wheat/Jowar – Wheat/jowar crop zones are predominant in the northern strip of the state. Some southern areas of the state also have the potential to grow these crops.

(iii) Rice Zone – This zone is confined to the eastern part of the state where black soil type is present.

(iv) Wheat Zone – This crop zone is the central part of the state.

(v) Wheat/Rice Zone – This crop zone is present in the eastern part of MP where the soil type is black.

  In the recent past, MP has been lauded for its excellent performance of agriculture – MP’s agricultural GDP grew at 9.7 per cent per annum during 2005-06 to 2014-15, surpassing even record-holder Gujarat’s 7.7 per cent.