CDS (I) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 89 of 120

Correct — D, land that has been left fallow for more than five years. In India's land-use records the fallow categories form a ladder set by how long the land has gone uncultivated. Land left without cultivation for one agricultural year or less is current fallow. Land left uncultivated for more than a year but less than five years is fallow other than current fallow. Once the gap passes five years the land is no longer counted as fallow at all — it is classed as culturable wasteland, land that is cultivable in principle and can be brought back into cultivation after reclamation, but that is not being cultivated now. Five years is the threshold the question is testing, so option (d) is the only one that matches.

• (a)Land that has been left fallow in last four years — Four years falls inside the one-to-five-year band, which is 'fallow other than current fallow', not culturable wasteland.
• (b)Land that has been left fallow between one and two years — This too sits inside the one-to-five-year band and is therefore fallow other than current fallow.
• (c)Land that has been left fallow for less than one year — Land left without cultivation for one agricultural year or less is current fallow — a deliberate rest given to the soil, not a wasteland.

Indian land revenue records divide the reporting area into nine land-use categories. Three of them turn on how long a cultivable field has been idle. Current fallow is land left without cultivation for one agricultural year or less, a normal practice that lets the soil recover fertility. Fallow other than current fallow is cultivable land left uncultivated for more than a year but less than five. Culturable wasteland is any land left fallow for more than five years; it can be returned to cultivation after reclamation.

This is a threshold question, and the whole of it lives in one number. The wording of the options is designed to make you hunt for the right duration rather than the right label, so fix the ladder first — one year or less, one to five years, more than five years — and read off the top rung. It also helps to know that culturable wasteland is a shrinking category: its share of India's reporting area fell from about 8 per cent in 1950–51 to about 3.9 per cent in 2019–20, largely because such land has been taken up either for cultivation or for non-agricultural uses.

• Culturable wasteland is any land left fallow, that is uncultivated, for more than five years; it can be brought under cultivation after improvement through reclamation practices.
• Current fallow is land left without cultivation for one agricultural year or less, a practice that lets the land recoup lost fertility naturally.
• Fallow other than current fallow is cultivable land left uncultivated for more than a year but less than five years.
• Culturable wasteland fell from about 8 per cent of India's reporting area in 1950–51 to about 3.9 per cent in 2019–20.

• Confusing culturable wasteland with barren and waste land — the latter cannot be brought under cultivation at all, being rock, ravine or desert.
• Treating any fallow land as wasteland; a field rested for one season is current fallow and remains part of the cultivated system.
• Picking four years because it sounds close to five — the category is defined as more than five years, so four falls in the band below.

Asked as a definition item resting on a single numerical threshold in the land-use classification.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Cultivable land left uncultivated for more than one year but less than five years is classified as

  • (a)Current fallow
  • (b)Fallow other than current fallow
  • (c)Culturable wasteland
  • (d)Barren and waste land

  Answer(b) Fallow other than current fallow — beyond five years it would be reclassified as culturable wasteland.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which land-use category covers land that cannot be brought under cultivation at all, such as rocky terrain, ravines and deserts?

  • (a)Culturable wasteland
  • (b)Current fallow
  • (c)Barren and waste land
  • (d)Permanent pastures and grazing lands

  Answer(c) Barren and waste land — culturable wasteland, by contrast, can be reclaimed and cultivated.