As per the Land Revenue Records, any land is categorized as Culturable Waste-Land if it is left fallow (uncultivated) for more than
- (a)2 years
- (b)3 years
- (c)4 years
- (d)5 years
Answer
Why
Correct — D, 5 years (more than 5 years). In India's land-revenue land-use classification, land that is fit for cultivation but has been left uncultivated for more than five years is put in the 'culturable waste land' category. Shorter idle spells are classed as fallow: land left idle for up to a year is current fallow, and land idle for one to five years is fallow other than current fallow — only beyond five years does it become culturable waste.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)2 years — Two years is still within the fallow window; land idle for one to five years is 'fallow other than current fallow', not culturable waste.
- (b)3 years — Three years is under the five-year cut-off, so the land is still counted as fallow rather than culturable waste.
- (c)4 years — Four years is still within the fallow-other-than-current range; the culturable-waste category begins only after five years.
Concept
Indian land records divide land by how it is used. Cultivable land that is not being cropped is graded by how long it has stayed idle: current fallow (idle up to about a year), fallow other than current fallow (idle one to five years), and culturable waste land (fit for cultivation but idle for more than five years).
The distractors line up as a ladder of years, and the key is the five-year threshold that separates temporary fallow from culturable waste. Anything up to five years is still 'fallow'; crossing five years moves the plot into the culturable-waste class, even though it could still be farmed.
Key facts
- Culturable waste land is cultivable land left uncultivated for more than five years.
- Current fallow is land left idle for one agricultural year or less.
- Fallow other than current fallow covers land idle for one to five years.
- Barren and waste land, by contrast, cannot be brought under cultivation at all.
The five-year mark separates temporary fallow from culturable waste land.
Study next
Common traps
- The five-year threshold, not two or three years, defines culturable waste land.
- Culturable waste land can still be farmed; barren and waste land cannot.
Culturable waste land is tested by asking for the exact fallow period, with shorter year-values planted as traps.
Related PYQs
Any land that is left fallow for more than five years is termed as
- (a) Current fallow
- (b) Fallow other than current fallow
- (c) Culturable waste land
- (d) Barren and waste land
Answer(c) Culturable waste land
The identical land-use fact tested the other way round. The 2024 item gives the five-year rule and asks for the category name (culturable waste land); the 2025 question gives the category and asks for the fallow period (more than five years).
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
Land left uncultivated for one agricultural year is classified as
- (a)Current fallow
- (b)Culturable waste land
- (c)Barren land
- (d)Net sown area
Answer(a) Current fallow — cultivable land idle for a single agricultural year is current fallow. - practice — not a real PYQ
Which category refers to land that cannot be brought under cultivation at all?
- (a)Culturable waste land
- (b)Fallow other than current fallow
- (c)Barren and waste land
- (d)Current fallow
Answer(c) Barren and waste land — this is land unfit for cultivation, unlike culturable waste which could be farmed.