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Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa

In the imperial Gazetteer of India 1878, Pusa was recorded as a government estate of about 1350 acres in Darbhanba. It was acquired by East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. Frequent incidence of glanders disease (swelling of glands), mostly affecting the valuable imported bloodstock made the civil veterinary department to shift the entire stock out of Pusa. A British tobacco concern Beg Sutherland & co. got the estate on lease but it also left in 1897 abandoning the government estate of Pusa. Lord Mayo, The Viceroy and Governor General, had been repeatedly trying to get through his proposal for setting up a directorate general of Agriculture that would take care of the soil and its productivity, formulate newer techniques of cultivation, improve the quality of seeds and livestock and also arrange for imparting agricultural education. The government of India had invited a British expert. Dr. J. A. Voelcker who had submitted as report on the development of Indian agriculture. As a follow-up action, three experts in different fields were appointed for the first time during 1885 to 1895 namely, agricultural chemist (Dr. J. W. Leafer), cryptogamic botanist (Dr. R. A. Butler) and entomologist (Dr. H. Maxwell Lefroy) with headquarters at Dehradun (U.P.) in the forest Research Institute complex. Surprisingly, until now Pusa, which was destined to become the centre of agricultural revolution in the country, was lying as before an abandoned government estate. In 1898. Lord Curzon took over as the viceroy. A widely traveled person and an administrator, he salvaged out the earlier proposal and got London’s approval for the appointment of the inspector General of Agriculture to which the first incumbent Mr. J. Mollison (Dy. Director of Agriculture, Bombay) joined in 1901 with headquarters at Nagpur The then government of Bengal had mooted in 1902 a proposal to the centre for setting up a model cattle farm for improving the dilapidated condition of the livestock at Pusa estate where plenty of land, water and feed would be available, and with Mr. Mollison’s support this was accepted in principle. Around Pusa, there were many British planters and also an indigo research centre Dalsing Sarai (near Pusa). Mr. Mollison’s visits to this mini British kingdom and his strong recommendations. In favour of Pusa as the most ideal place for the Bengal government project obviously caught the attention for the viceroy.

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Subject: Agricultural Economics × Author: D M, MADHU × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2020 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF MULBERRY SILK IN CHIKKABALLAPUR DISTRICT OF KARNATAKA
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) D M, MADHU; SINHA, D. K.
    The present study aims at assessing the share of women in cost and return involved in production of mulberry silk and women empowerment achieved in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka. The primary data was obtained from 90 sericulture farmers from six randomly selected villages and 50 intermediaries like silk reelers, silk twisters, weavers and consumers from two randomly selected blocks of Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka by conducting interviews with individual respondents. At overall farm level, women labour participation in weeding activities accounted for 21.36 % of total man days, followed by mulberry planting (13.50%), and so on. It was observed that the total establishment cost of mulberry for the overall farmers was accounted for Rs. 50,222.76 per acre, Rs. 49,514.15, Rs. 50,276.62 and Rs. 51,459.69 per acre for marginal, small and medium category farmers, subsequently. In mulberry maintenance, (women employment) share of women labour was comparatively high in case of weeding with 6.96 man days (34.55%), followed by FYM application with 3.44 man days (17.08 %) etc. The total cost of mulberry maintenance for the overall farmers was accounted for Rs. 28,568.73 per acre. The share of women labour was enumerated higher in case of feeding of silkworms (at different stages) with 5.02 man days (16.20%), followed by leaf harvesting with 3.83 man days (12.36 %) and so on. The total costs of mulberry cocoon production per batch was estimated to be Rs. 44,234.86 for the farm as whole and Rs. 27,352.31, Rs, 48,987.76 and Rs. 73,146.07 for marginal, small and medium category farmers, respectively. The major utilization of women labour was found to be about 808.93 mandays (43.19 %) in case of cooking with reeling of cocoons & changing water in the pans, followed by about 123.75 man days (6.60%) in cleaning and sorting of cocoons and so on. The total cost for the production of raw mulberry silk was estimated Rs. 1,45,76,798.4 per year per six reeling basins. The total gross returns from the selling of the main product and by-product figured out to be Rs. 1,60,46,945.76 per year and net returns was Rs. 14,70,147.36. The marketing cost incurred by various categories of farmers i.e., for overall, was amounted to Rs. 980.78, and Rs.1109.72, Rs.966.98 and 882.14, for marginal, small and medium category farmers, respectively. Producers share in consumer’s rupee was estimated to be 34.28 per cent, and further price spread was 65.72 per cent to the consumer’s rupee. The frequency of women IEI falling in the range of more than 0.75 (>0.75) which was considered as adequate empowerment thus, only 22.22 % of women fell under a range of IEI > 0.75 which opined as women could have attained their adequate empowerment and remaining 77.78% women were confined to the process of attaining empowerment. The Women Empowerment Index (WEI) was found 0.688 for these women who participated in sericulture. The major constraints faced by the women in mulberry cultivation was water scarcity, followed by wage discrimination etc. Constraints encountered in cocoon production was identified as pest and disease of mulberry silkworms, followed by improper disinfectant and so on. Constraints encountered in marketing of mulberry silk cocoons was with formed as high price fluctuations in the market followed by the absence of quality based pricing. The constraints faced by women in mulberry silk production was formed majorly high investment cost followed by women drudgery problems in reeling and constraints in marketing of silk was high price fluctuations followed by less access to marketing and non-profitable prices and so on.