Answer: Rural land use is dominated by agriculture and other primary activities.
Land use means the way land is used by people for different purposes. In rural areas most of the land is used for primary activities and the population depends on them. The main categories are:
- Agricultural land (net sown area): the largest share of rural land is used for growing crops.
- Fallow land: land left uncultivated for one or more seasons to regain fertility (current fallow and other fallow).
- Forests: land under forest cover, used for timber, fuelwood and minor forest produce.
- Permanent pastures and grazing land: used by village cattle; often common land.
- Land under miscellaneous trees and orchards.
- Cultivable waste land: land that can be cultivated but has not been cultivated for more than five years.
- Barren and unculturable land: rocky, desert or hilly land that cannot be cultivated.
- Land put to non-agricultural uses: houses of the village (gaothan), roads, wells, ponds, temples and schools.
Rural land use depends on relief, soil, climate, water availability, population pressure and government policies. Land records in India classify village land into such categories.
