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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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20201
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Subject: Agricultural Economics × Author: Kushwaha, Srishti × End date: 2023 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Land use management for sustainable agricultural development in Uttar Pradesh
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Kushwaha, Srishti; Sinha, D.K.
    The present study entitled land use management for sustainable agricultural development in Uttar Pradesh aims at knowing the land use pattern, cropping pattern, irrigation pattern, extent of land degradation and causes of land degradation and to suggest suitable policy measures to improve the existing land use and agricultural sustainability in various agro-climatic zones of Uttar Pradesh. The study was based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected randomly from 300 respondents from 12 purposively selected villages of 6 blocks of 3 districts from 3 zones of Uttar Pradesh on the basis of higher area under non-agricultural uses land by conducting interview of individual respondents who were classified into marginal, small, medium and large on the basis of their land holdings. The secondary data was collected from various published and unpublished sources for the period 2000-01 to 2015-16. For detailed analysis, the whole study period was divided into two sub-periods and overall period that is, period-I (2000-01 to 2007-08), period-II (2008-09 to 2015-16) and overall period (2000-01 to 2015-16). Net area sown had been declined in Uttar Pradesh as well as in some of the agro-climatic zones of the state, showing negative and significant growth rate -0.04% (state), -0.13% (zone-I), -0.23% (zone-II), -0.05% (zone-V), -0.02% (zone-VII) and -0.47% (zone-IX) per annum, respectively during the overall period (2000-01 to 2015-16). The reason for decline in net area sown might be due to increase in non-agricultural uses of land and current fallow land. However, net area sown had increased in zone-III, zone-IV, zone-VI and zone-VIII, depicting positive compound growth rate 0.08%, 0.02%, 0.08% and 0.02% per annum, respectively during the overall period. This may probably be due to decline in culturable waste land, fallow land other than current fallow and current fallow land. While, the growth rate of area under non-agricultural uses land had increased, depicting positive and significant in the state (0.63%) as well as in all the agro-climatic zones of the state that is, zone-I (0.40%), zone-II (0.66%), zone-III (0.63%), zone-IV (0.79%), zone-V (0.61%), zone-VI (0.59%), zone-VII (0.39%), zone-VIII (0.78%) and zone-IX (0.87%), respectively, during the overall study period. There was a sharp increase in the concentration of non-agricultural uses of land in the state as well as in all the agro-climatic zones of the state during the study period TE-2003 to TE-2015. Concentration of net area sown had increased in zone-III, zone-IV and zone-VI of the state. Area under both rice and wheat crops had increased in the state and in agro-climatic zones that is, zone-I, zone-II, zone-V, zone-VII and zone-VIII during the period TE-2004 to TE-2016. These were the staple food crops of the state. Area under coarse cereals had also declined in the state as well as in all the agro-climatic zones of the state that is zone-I, zone-II, zone-IV, zone-V, zone-VI, zone-VII, zone-VIII and zone-IX except zone-III during the study period. Area under pulses had declined in the state and in all the agro-climatic zones of the state, probably due to susceptibility of these crops against various pest and diseases and also due to lower productivity. Sugarcane and potato were grown as the main cash crops in the state. Area under sugarcane had increased in the state and also in zone-I, zone-II, zone-III, zone-V, zone-VI and zone-VII of the state during the reported period TE-2004 to TE-2016. This may probably be due to the availability of many sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh. Area under potato had increased in the state and also in zone-IV, zone-V, zone-VI, and zone-IX during the study period. Rapeseed and mustard were cultivated as the major oilseed crop in the state. Area under rapeseed and mustard had also enhanced during the same period in the state and in some of the agro-climatic zones that is, zone-II, zone-III, zone-V, zone-VI, zone-VIII and zone-IX except zone-IV and zone-VII. It was observed that compound growth rate of area under rice was found to be positive but insignificant (0.14%) during overall study period (2001-16) for the state. However, compound annual growth rate for rice was found to be positive and significant in zone-II (1.55%), zone-IV (1.61%) and zone-VIII (0.23%) during the overall study period. Compound annual growth rate for wheat crop was found positive and significant in the state (0.27%) as well as zone-IV (0.10%), zone-V (0.21%), zone-VI (1.05%), zone-VII (0.24%) and zone-VIII (0.38%) during the overall study period. Compound growth rate for area under sugarcane was estimated positive and significant for the stateas well as in all the zones under study except zone-IV, zone-VIII and zone-IX during the overall period. Compound annual growth rate of area under potato was also observed to be positive for the state and in zone-IV, zone-V, zone-VI, zone-VIII and zone-IX during the overall study period. Compound growth rate of area under rapeseed and mustard were also found to be positive and significant during the overall study period for the state as well as in almost all the agro-climatic zones of the state. Among foodgrain crops, higher instability in area was observed in gram and arhar crops for the state and all the agro-climatic zones of the state during the overall study period (2001-16). In case of non-foodgrain crops, higher instability was recorded in area under potato crop in zone-I (13.00%), zone-VI (12.80%), zone-III (9.79%) and zone-IV (8.92%) during the overall study period. Higher instability in area under sugarcane crop was recorded in zone-VI (24.85%), zone-IX (9.51%) and zone-V (7.53%) during the overall study period. Area under canal irrigation system had indicated declining trend, depicting negative and significant growth rate, while, area under tube-well irrigation system increased, showing positive and significant growth rate for the state as well as all the agro-climatic zones of the state during the study period TE-2004 to TE-2016. Total wasteland with respect to total geographical area had declined in the state and also in all the agro-climatic zones of the state during the study period 2000-01 to 2015-16. On the other hand, all other categories of wasteland likegullied/ravine soils, waterlogged/marshy land, saline/alkaline soils, degraded pasture/grazing land, degraded land under plantation crop, desertic sand/coastal sand, barren/rocky land had also got declined in the state as well as in all the agro-climatic zones of the state during the study period. Further, mining/industrial land had also increased for the state as whole and in all the agro-climatic zones of the state during the study period. Majority of the sample farmers were observed to be marginal in all the three selected districts i.e. Kushinagar (75%), Lucknow (81%) and Shahjahanpur (40%) of North eastern plain zone, Central plain zone and Mid western plain zone, respectively, during the study period. From the analysis of land use pattern at household level, the average wasteland was observed to be 2.88% in Kushinagar, 9.43% in Lucknow and 1.66% in Shahjahanpur district, respectively out of respective average cultivated area. Logit analysis was used to find out the causes of land degradation. The variables such as education and migration in Kushinagar district of north eastern plain zone, fertilizer use, mono-cropping, non-farm income and total land in Lucknow district of central plain zone and fertilizer use, family labour, leased out land and total land in Shahjahanpur district of mid western plain zone were found to be significant for the causes of the land degradation. The study suggests that the net sown area may be enhanced by taking initiatives in the direction of improving and putting the following land under utilization such as culturable wasteland, current fallow land, fallow land other than current fallow and other degraded land with suitable soil amelioration programmes and machinery practices, well developed irrigation facilities, drainage facilities, etc. The government should further take necessary steps to enhance the area and production of pulses in the state through evolution of promising pulse varieties along with subsidized inputs. Suitable water management should be practiced to avoid water logging and salinity problems. Fertilizer application should be used based on the requirement of different nutrients as suggested by the soils test. More emphasis should be given for the use of organic fertilizers. Suitable cropping pattern like Western plain zone- rice-potato-wheat, Central plain zone- maize-potato-wheat, Vindhyan zone- rice-potato-greengram, etc should be practiced so as to avoid the ill-effects of monocropping. Employment opportunities through expansion of allied activities of agriculture and cottage industries should be explored and created to lessen the migration of labour. The combined efforts of above activities would discourage the pace of land degradation.