In 10 years, number of framers decreases by 9 percent, utilization of land decreased

According to Agricultural Census 2021, 62 percent of the total families in the country are in farming occupation. The recently revealed Seventh Agricultural Census has shown that the ratio of farmers in the country dropped down by 9 percent in 10 years.

The report says that 10 years back there were 38,093 farmer families were engaged in 2,525,639 sectors of land. But now that has the cultivated area of land decreased by 300,000 hectares. So as around 2.2 million hectares of land have been utilised for farming.

The census was conducted between April 19, 2022, and June 2, 2022.The latest survey shows that there are 4,130,789 families depending on agriculture for their livelihood. Before 10 years, this figure was 4,831,093. The census reveals that the number of households involved in agriculture has been declining steadily. Thus, the dependency on agriculture has also declined of late. The dependency ratio on agriculture has fallen to 62 percent from 71 percent.

The Agricultural Census of 2021 also illustrates that 3,372,000 families that means 82 percent of the agriculture-dependent families own land for farming and rear livestock. A total of 689,000 (17 percent) of farming families lease agricultural land, apart from their own land, for cultivation purposes.

However, over the period of ten years, the number of farming families involved in livestock has increased from 3.3 million to 3.4 million. Likewise, 10,375 farming families have engaged in nursery farming on 597.7 hectares of land.

From the point of view of gender involvement, the 2011 census said that 81 percent of main farmers were men, whereas 19 percent were women. But, in the 2021 census, men’s representation has decreased to 67.6 percent, while women’s representation has increased accordingly.

Similarly, it is noted that irrigation facility has been provided to a little more than 1.29 million hectares of land. The irrigation facility expanded by 2.5 percent of the arable land in the past 10 years. In 2011, irrigation facilities were accessible on 52 percent of the arable land, which grew to 54.5 percent in the review period.

The farmers who use tractors are increased as it shows that 1.639 million. This was 845 thousand in 2021. Power tellers are used by 471,260 farmer families. So as iron plough users are seen drastically decreased.