Extent of cultivation in Medieval India: 

(i) Extent of cultivation may be understood in terms of actual area under the plough in relation to the total available cultivable land. There was a favourable ratio of land to man i.e., availability of land is surplus than the actual land cultivated by peasants. In such a situation an increase in production was sought through expansion of agriculture i.e., bringing newer areas under cultivation.

(ii) For example large tracts of land in even such fertile regions as the Ganga-Yamuna Doab were covered by forests and grasslands during the Sultanate period. Land continued to exist in a favourable ratio to man during the Mughal period as well.

(iii) The rulers of this era, therefore, harped on the policy of expansion of agriculture to such areas which were still not under cultivation. Agriculture was introduced to tribal, backward, and outlying areas.

(iv) Forests were cleared and agricultural wastelands were converted into cultivable lands.

(v) Extent of agriculture expanded in good proportions from the Sultanate to the Mughal period. By the Mughal period, agriculture was practised in almost all parts of the empire, yet land still existed in huge surplus than the actual requirement of the Mughal agricultural population.

(vi) The extent of cultivation significantly increased during the reign of Aurangzeb in comparison to Akbar's reign. The expansion of cultivation in Bihar, Awadh and parts of Bengal is ascribed to clearance of forest, whereas in Punjab and Sind, to the spread of canal network.