AHMEDABAD: Gujarat has lost 2.28 lakh hectares of cultivable land in five years, with the area declining from 124.62 lakh hectares in 2020-21 to 122.34 lakh hectares in 2024-25, a 1.83% fall, while the latest official agricultural household income data for the state dates back to 2018-19.
According to the latest Land Use Statistics cited in the Lok Sabha, Gujarat still accounts for 6.82% of the country’s 1,794.28 lakh hectares of cultivable land.
Its average monthly agricultural household income was ₹12,631, higher than the national average of ₹10,218 by 23.6%, but lower than the income recorded in nine states: Meghalaya (₹29,348), Punjab (₹26,701), Haryana (₹22,841), Arunachal Pradesh (₹19,225), Jammu & Kashmir (₹18,918), Mizoram (₹17,964), Kerala (₹17,915), Uttarakhand (₹13,552) and Karnataka (₹13,441).
According to the latest Land Use Statistics placed before the Lok Sabha, Gujarat had 12,462 thousand hectares of cultivable land in 2020-21. The figure slipped to 12,428 thousand hectares in 2021-22, fell further to 12,368 thousand hectares in 2022-23, and declined to 12,317 thousand hectares in 2023-24.
The contraction continued in 2024-25, when Gujarat’s cultivable land stood at 12,234 thousand hectares, or 122.34 lakh hectares. In five years, the state therefore lost 228 thousand hectares, equivalent to 2.28 lakh hectares of cultivable land.
The decline is gradual rather than sudden, but the direction is consistent. Gujarat recorded a fall in cultivable land in each of the four successive annual transitions covered by the data.
Despite the contraction, Gujarat remains one of the country’s largest agricultural land states.
With 122.34 lakh hectares of cultivable land in 2024-25, Gujarat ranked seventh among states in the latest data, behind Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Gujarat’s cultivable land base represented roughly 6.82% of India’s total 1,794.28 lakh hectares in 2024-25. The national cultivable land area itself declined from 1,802.66 lakh hectares in 2020-21 to 1,794.28 lakh hectares in 2024-25.
The Gujarat decline of nearly 1.83% over the five year period is significant, particularly because the state already operates with a large and economically important agricultural base.
The official definition of cultivable or agricultural land in the data is broad. It includes net area sown, current fallows, fallow lands other than current fallows, culturable waste land and land under miscellaneous tree crops.
The income picture appears stronger on paper.
The latest official Situation Assessment Survey put Gujarat’s average monthly income of an agricultural household at ₹12,631 during the agricultural year July 2018 to June 2019. However, Gujarat remained well behind the country’s top farmer income states, with Meghalaya (₹29,348), Punjab (₹26,701), Haryana (₹22,841), Arunachal Pradesh (₹19,225), Jammu & Kashmir (₹18,918), Mizoram (₹17,964), Kerala (₹17,915), Uttarakhand (₹13,552) and Karnataka (₹13,441).
However, the crucial caveat is the age of this data.
The Union government told the Lok Sabha that the Situation Assessment Survey was last conducted in 2019, and therefore the extent of average monthly agricultural household income during the subsequent three years is not available in the survey series.
That means the ₹12,631 figure should not be presented as Gujarat farmers’ current income in 2026. It is the latest officially available benchmark, but it describes the economic situation of agricultural households in 2018-19.
The numbers reveal a clear mismatch.
Gujarat has a current cultivable land estimate for 2024-25, but its latest comparable agricultural household income estimate is still from 2018-19.
In other words, policymakers have relatively recent data showing that Gujarat’s cultivable land base has contracted by 2.28 lakh hectares, but there is no equally recent official survey figure in this dataset showing how agricultural household incomes have changed during the same period.
This creates a significant measurement gap for assessing whether shrinking agricultural land is being accompanied by rising productivity and income, or whether farmers are facing increasing pressure on their land based livelihoods.
The Union government has cited a wide range of measures intended to increase agricultural productivity, reduce cultivation costs, diversify crops, improve returns and support farm incomes.
The listed programmes span crop production, irrigation, insurance, credit, mechanisation, marketing, natural and organic farming, horticulture, infrastructure, farmer organisations and digital agriculture.
The government also stated that MSPs for mandated Kharif, Rabi and commercial crops have been increased from 2018-19 onwards with a minimum return of 50% over the cost of production.
Source: Land Use Statistics at a Glance 2024-25; 2024-25 figure is provisional.
The central issue is that Gujarat’s cultivable land has fallen consistently while the most recent official farmer income benchmark remains from 2018-19.
Gujarat still commands more than 1.22 crore hectares of cultivable land and remains among India’s top seven states by agricultural land. But the five year loss of 2.28 lakh hectares raises questions about the changing land base available to agriculture.
At the same time, Gujarat’s last measured agricultural household income of ₹12,631 a month was higher than the national average, but the absence of a newer official household income survey prevents a reliable assessment of where farm incomes stand in 2026.
The data therefore tells two stories at once: Gujarat remains an agricultural heavyweight, but its cultivable land is steadily shrinking while the state lacks a current official farmer income number to show whether farm households are keeping pace.
