RAS question
What is the percentage of net sown area in Rajasthan's total reporting area for 2023-24?
Correct answer: (A) 53.10%.
In 2023-24, net sown area accounted for 53.10 per cent of Rajasthan's total reporting area.
Explanation
Rajasthan's Economic Review 2024-25 places this figure under Land Use Statistics 2023-24 (Provisional). It states that the state's total reporting area in 2023-24 was 342.74 lakh hectares, and that 53.10 per cent of this area was net sown area. The answer is therefore not an estimate of cultivation intensity or a general agricultural share; it is the specific share of net sown area within the total reporting area. Since the question asks for the percentage of net sown area in Rajasthan's total reporting area for 2023-24, the official figure directly supports option A, 53.10 per cent.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) 60 per cent overstates the share because the official land-use figure fixes net sown area at 53.10 per cent of the total reporting area.
- (C) 40 per cent understates the share; the Economic Review reports 53.10 per cent, not 40 per cent, for net sown area.
- (D) 45 per cent is below the official figure, which is 53.10 per cent of Rajasthan's 342.74 lakh hectares of total reporting area.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan land-use statistics, especially the distinction between total reporting area and net sown area. It recurs in RAS because agriculture, land use and resource constraints are core parts of Rajasthan geography.