With a total area of 1,474 square kilometre, Delhi has only 15 per cent of it under cultivation. And with a population density of over 11,500 persons per square kilometre, a net sown area of 23,150 hectares (or 231.5 square kilometres) is a far cry from what Delhi actually needs to meet the demands of its residents.

And that’s why, most of the essential food grains, vegetables, fruits and other daily use products to meet the people’s demands have to be brought in from other States. And since Delhi’s food production is a very small fraction of what it consumes due to lack of cultivable land, even using really advanced farming practices cannot do much to bridge the gap.

According to statistics issued by the Government, out of the total area of 1,47,488 hectares, almost 93 thousand hectares are not available for cultivation. While over 76 thousand hectares are put to non-agricultural uses, almost 16,500 hectares are barren uncultivable land. Around 20 thousand hectares of land are also left as fallow land.

Out of the net sown area of 23,150 hectares, only 11,590 hectares are sown more than once in a year and the rest is sown only once.

In terms of production, Delhi produced only 1,66,026 metric tons of total food grains in 2013-14, insufficient to feed over 17 million people for a whole year. Its production of wheat and rice was 86,498 metric tons and 29,652 metric tons respectively last year. The production of other grains like barley, bajra and maize was even lower.

It makes it clear why  even a small fluctuation in food grains, vegetables and other essential products leads to a great impact on Delhi.