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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 × Start date: 1994 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    ESTIMATION OF OUTPUT SUPPLY AND FACTOR DEMAND ELASTICITIES FOR MILK PRODUCTION IN SOUTHERN INDIA
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) LAKSHMIPRIYA, PATIBANDLA; Sinha, D. K.
    Milk is extremely important because it is the second largest contribution of world agricultural output. In addition, it is an essential part of the vegetarian diet in countries like India. However, dairy producers are not compensated fairly for their milk production. Farmers that want to improve milk output need financial incentives, which can only be provided by a system that rewards them for doing so. One needs a solid empirical understanding of how sensitive factor demand and product supply are to changes in relative prices and technological developments in order to develop an effective pricing strategy. With these factors in mind, the current study was conducted in Southern India to analyze the costs and returns from milk production, to determine the profit efficiency of dairy farms and the factors affecting it, estimate the output supply and factor demand elasticities for milk production, find the cost elasticities and net income elasticities, and assess the constraints faced by dairy farmers in milk production. An interview schedule was used to obtain primary data from 240 respondents of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu to achieve the objectives of the study. For the years 2019–20 and 2020–21, secondary data on milk production and livestock population from a wide variety of sources, including websites, research journals, government publications, the Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, and milk unions like BAMUL (KN) and Aavin (TN), etc. Selected respondents were post stratified into three herd-size categories using the Cumulative Square Root Frequency Method: Small (1-3 milch animals), Medium (4-6 milch animals), and Large (7 or more milch animals). The statistical tools included the use of tabular analysis, the Capital Recovery Cost (CRC) approach, the normalized translog profit function, cost and price determination models, the Stochastic Cobb-Douglas profit function, and the Garrets Ranking Technique. According to the results, daily average gross maintenance cost for milk production was highest for crossbred cows (₹ 234.12), followed by buffalo (₹ 163.82), and finally local cows (₹ 143.54). Crossbred cows had the highest net cost of ₹ 227.94 per milch animal per day, followed by buffalo at ₹ 159.67, and local cows at ₹ 139.93. Local cows had the highest cost per litre of milk produced (₹ 33.13), followed by buffalo (₹ 31.84) and crossbred cows (₹ 20.99). While the net return per litre of milk was positive for crossbred cows (₹ 5.67) and buffalo (₹ 3.30) across all herd size categories but it was negative for local cows (₹ -3.93) due to the high cost of feed and fodder and the poor milk yield. Perhaps the rejection of the test of symmetry can be rationalised by the farmers' goal to maximise the utility of agricultural by-products rather than profit maximisation. The magnitude of own price elasticities was negative for all the variable inputs. That milk farmers are more concerned with their own prices than the price of other inputs was made very evident. Overall, a majority of the estimated cross-price elasticity values had a negative sign, showing that the variable inputs are complementary to one another, with the exception of the values for dry fodder and concentrate to veterinarian services, which showed a positive sign and are substitutes for one another. There was a positive relationship between milk price and demand of all the variable inputs for milk production and a negative relationship between milk supply and the variable input prices. It was determined that the cost elasticities were positive in relation to the prices of variable inputs, whereas the net income elasticities were found to be negative. Milk prices would need to increase by 10.77 per cent for small herds, 11.24 per cent for medium herds, 11.82 per cent for large herds, and 11.02 per cent for the overall herd to maintain a constant net income (i=0), according to the growth of cost of production and net income models. To maintain consistent returns to the production cost, the milk price would need to be adjusted by 9.73, 10.32, 10.75, and 10.25 per cent for small, medium, large, and overall herd size categories, respectively. For the year 2029-30, small herd size categories were assessed to have an estimated cost of production per litre of milk of ₹ 67.51, while the medium, large and overall herd size categories have ₹ 69.09, ₹ 71.92, and ₹ 68.98, respectively. Comparatively, in the year 2029-30, the predicted price for milk at constant monetary net income and at constant return to production cost was observed to be ₹ 75.25 and ₹ 69.13 for small herd size categories; ₹ 79.61 and ₹ 73.93 for medium; ₹ 84.28 and ₹ 77.27 for large; and ₹ 77.65 and ₹ 72.97 for overall herd size categories, respectively. Using maximum likelihood estimates, it was found that overall, prices of green fodder (0.1873), prices of concentrate (0.1072), veterinary service rate (0.0569) and herd size (0.7545) all have a positive and statistically significant effect on normalized profits, while the prices of dry fodder (-0.0277) and labour wages (-0.1652) both have a negative and statistically significant effect. A total of 41.35 per cent of profit efficiency was lost due to technical and allocative inefficiencies in milk production, with the overall milk producers' mean profit efficiency of 58.65 per cent that ranging from 32.50 to 89.61 per cent, respectively. Overall, the profit inefficiency model found that a farmer's level of education, herd size, herd composition, and their level of dairy farming experience had a negative and statistically significant effect on profit inefficiency. Therefore, increasing the number of crossbred cows, enhancing dairy farm experience through educating farmers towards balanced feeding techniques, and adopting new technologies would assist in overcoming the inefficiency and subsequently raising the profit efficiency. Major constraints faced by milk producers were a shortage of green fodder round the year, poor conception rate through AI, high cost of medicines, high cost of construction of shed, lack of insurance facility, low price of crossbred cow milk and non-remunerative price for milk. For dairy farming to be profitable, extension institutions need to focus on services to include mobile veterinary clinics and training for farmers in areas like as feeding, breeding, disease control, heat detection, and marketing strategies. The study revealed that the majority of respondents in the study region are not happy with the procurement price offered by the milk collection centres. Therefore, rather than providing price incentives, farmers would benefit more from a rise in the price they are paid for milk that is at least proportionate to the cost of the feed fed to animals which helps farmers to improve productivity of animals and subsequently increasing the profits.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A STUDY ON EXPORT OF MAJOR MARINE PRODUCTS FROM INDIA
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) JEEVITHA, G N; Singh, K. M.
    Indian fisheries sector contributed immensely to the country’s economic development as it is a promising contributor to foreign exchange earnings. Developing countries have inevitably acquired a superior position as international fish exporters. India occupies 3rd position as an international producer and 5th position as an international exporter in 2020. The growth of marine products exports benefits the country’s economy as it supports nutritional security and provides livelihood opportunities for coastal communities. The marine product exports contribution to India's total agricultural exports and its status as a consistent net exporter underscore its importance in international trade dynamics. The present study focuses on the international trade aspect of the India’s marine products to understand trends, export dynamics and market shifts over the period. The study revealed that the Crustacean exports primarily drove India’s total marine exports. Although Crustacean exports grew substantially over the second period (2011-2021), both in terms of quantity (11%) and value (10.45%), the unit value realization was not up to the mark. They were highly concentrated towards importers like UAS and China and highly competitive in the international market concerning both agricultural exports (average RSCA value of 0.69) and total merchandise exports (average RSCA value of 0.76) over the study period. The USA was the stable destination for India’s Crustaceans export. India’s Molluscs exports, though increased both in terms of quantity and value, their share in total exports remained more or less constant around 13 to 19 per cent. The Molluscs exported from India were competitive with average RSCA value of 0.51 concerning total merchandise exports and 0.38 with respect to agricultural exports over the study period and moderately concentrated in European countries and China. On the other hand, Frozen Fish exports were highly unstable both in terms of quantity (33.37) and value (35.95) during overall period. Their exports declined in recent years in both quantity and value terms, and their competitiveness exhibited a declining trend over the period. Their exports were highly concentrated towards China and Thailand. In recent years, China occupied the second position as a key importer of India’s marine products with a market share of 18.20 per cent and was also found to be the stable market for Molluscs export with retention probability of 0.83. Thailand has become one among India’s top five destinations, while Japan’s share declined over the study period. The study suggested emphasizing value addition and product development to improve the per-unit value of the exports. It is high time that India needs to diversify its exports in terms of both geographic destinations and export product basket to avoid risk and enhance its exports. India needs to improve its quality standards further to enhance its exports by gaining more comprehensive market access. It is also suggested to engage itself in trade negotiations to reduce market risks which can be very promising to sustain its exports in the long run.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    PRODUCTION AND TRADE OF COTTON IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF GUNTUR DISTRICT
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2022) S, PAVITHRA; Mishra, R. R.
    Cotton is one of the most important fibre and cash crop of India which plays a dominate role in agricultural and industrial sectors. Considering the importance of cotton in the Indian economy, the present study was conducted with an objective to analyze the importance of cotton in cropping pattern, the growth and instability of cotton in production and trade aspects, to analyze resource use efficiency of cotton and cost and returns therefrom, integration of selected cotton markets and trade competitiveness of cotton. To fulfill the objectives of the study, primary and secondary data were used. Primary data of sample size 250 was collected from the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh by using interview schedules. Secondary data related area, production, productivity, import and export of cotton pertaining to a period of 30 years beginning from 1989-90 to 2018-19 were collected from various websites, research journals, government publications, etc. The data was further divided into three sub-periods period I (1989-90 to 1998-99), period II (1999-2000 to 2008-09) and period III (2009-10 to 2018-19) for the purpose of analysis. Monthly average price cotton in different selected market was collected for Rajkot market, Sirsa market, Hinganghat market, Adilabad market and Jhabua market from AGMARKNET from 2006 to 2021.Cropping pattern, compound annual growth rate, co-efficient of variation, Cuddy-Della Valle Index (CDVI), data envelopment method, cost concepts, correlation analysis, Augmented Dicky Fuller test, Johensen‘s co-integration test, Granger-causality test, nominal protection co-efficient, export performance ration and revealed symmetric comparative advantage techniques were used. It was found that the share of cotton in gross cropped area under commercial crop got more and more skewed as one moved from national level to district level and at the lowest level (district level), it was highly skewed in favour of cotton. The area under cotton cultivation in India had an increased growth at a decreasing rate during the whole period under consideration. While, the growth rate of production and productivity of cotton had a positive and significant growth of 4.82 per cent per annum and 2.96 per cent per annum, respectively during the overall study period. The area, production and productivity of cotton were relatively stable in India during the period under study. International trade of cotton was positive and significant during the overall period. International trade was found to be highly unstable during the study period. Resource use efficiency of the sample farmers showed 34 per cent increased use of inputs to produce same level of outputs, spending 41 per cent more than the cost required for input combination and farmers can reduce 65 per cent of cost of cultivation of cotton to produce same level of output. Cost of cultivation of cotton had increased along with the farm size during the study period. Per hectare yield of cotton was 32.47 quintals, the gross income was Rs. 1,59,769.48 and net-returns from the cotton was Rs. 42,385.50. The Benefit-cost ratio obtained was 1.36. Cost of production of cotton was Rs. 3,615.43 over cost C2. Price movement in selected cotton markets were highly correlated. There was no stationarity in price series. Long run relationship between the prices showed the 4 co-integrating equation which indicated that, out of 5, 4 markets were well co-integrated. Causal relationship between the prices of selected markets showed the bi-directional influence on the prices except markets pairs. Indian cotton was non- competitive in the global market but had a comparative advantage during the study period.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    IMPACT OF MIGRATION ON AGRICULTURE AND STATUS OF DECISION MAKING OF WOMEN IN BIHAR
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2021) KUMARI, KALPANA; Singh, K.M.
    The present study was carried out to assess the Impact of Migration on Agriculture and Status of Decision Making of Women in Bihar. The empirical analysis is based on a survey of 360 households comprising of 180 migrant and non-migrant households each from 12 villages of Samastipur, Darbhanga and Madhubani districts of North Bihar. The assessment of impact of male migration in empowering left behind women in various domains of household decisions revealed that the migration of male member have adequately empowered only 29.44 per cent of women. Larger proportion of women respondents (43.89 per cent) were moderately empowered and 29.67 per cent fell under low empowerment group. Women had enough power to make decisions about their health, education, and agricultural production. Women's decision-making in all farm activities, such as crop selection, input purchasing, labour management, and farm produce sales, indicated a fairly moderate level of empowerment. The yield of paddy was observed to be at par (27.49 q/ha) for migrant‟s households and (27.36 q/ha) for non-migrant farms. Similar trend was observed in case of wheat crop except machine labour charges which was found to be comparatively high in case of non-migrant households. The yield gap was more pronounced in the case of wheat, where the mean yield for migrant was found to be 30.21q/ha compared to 26.88q/ha for non-migrants. The Cobb-Douglas method was used to estimate the efficiencies of production parameters such as area, capital, human labour, machine labour, and irrigation cost for each crop from each group of respondents. Area under paddy (0.417), material costs (seed, fertilizers, and manure) (0.941), and machine labour (0.017) were found to have positive and statistically significant regression coefficients. The irrigation charge coefficient was found to be positive but statistically insignificant. Paddy cultivation in Bihar is generally done during the monsoon season, so external irrigation is less commonly used for paddy cultivation. Coefficient of human labour was negative in case of migrant farmers, showing excess use of human labours. In case of non-migrant, land and human labour coefficients were estimated positive and statistically significant. In case of wheat production, that migrant‟s households are required to use their land and human labour judiciously in cultivation of paddy crop. The regression coefficient of human labour under wheat cultivation (-0.027) was negative and insignificant that indicated that non-migrant farms use labour more judiciously. For wheat cultivation, regression coefficients of all the parameters of production are positive and significant except machine labour in case of migrants‟ households. For maize cultivation, migrant farms have used capital and human labour in more precise ways. The logistic regression model was used to determine the factors that causes migration revealed that young people from low-income families and those living in substandard housing were more likely to migrate. It may be observed that, education levels, land holding size, and marital status were all strongly associated with migration. Migration has significantly empowered left-behind women in numerous household and livelihood tasks. Migration had a good influence on migrants' households in terms of resource use efficiency, which helped to boost agricultural productivity. There is a positive relationship between migration and educational attainment, but a negative relationship between migration and migrants‟ age. Migrants' households spent most of their remittances on food (51 per cent). The most common destinations were mostly metropolitan and industrialised areas, where major portion of migrants were absorbed into construction work. It was also discovered that the main cause for their return migration was their desire to work at their native place.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    TRADE AND DOMESTIC MARKET: AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF SUGAR IN INDIA
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2021) PRAMOD, GAWARE UTKARSHA; Mishra, R.R.
    Sugar is an essential commodity derived largely from sugarcane which is an agricultural produce. It is the most preferred source of energy required for proper functioning of human brain and body. It acts as a sweetener in food and beverages. Apart from these, it has many non-food and beverages. Apart from these, it has many non-food applications. Because of these properties, there is a great demand for sugar in domestic and international markets. Looking at its importance, the present study was conducted with the main objective of estimating the growth and instability in production of sugarcane and examining the performance of Indian sugar trade over time. The study is based on both primary data and secondary data. Primary data were collected from randomly selected sugar exporters located all over India by conducting telephonic interviews. Secondary data were collected from various published and unpublished sources. The time-series data so collected pertained to a 30- year period spanning from 1989-90 to 2018-19. The entire period under consideration was further divided into three sub-periods- period I (1989-90 to 1998-99), period II (1999-2000 to 2008-09) and period III (2009-10 to 2018-19) for detailed analysis. Various statistical and econometric methods and tools and techniques like CAGR, CV and CII, Index number, Trend analysis, EPR, NPC, Markov Chain Analysis, Cobb Douglas Function, HHI, TEI, CEI, Rank Based Quotient and Garrett’s Ranking Technique were used to arrive at a meaningful conclusion. The area under sugarcane, its production and productivity increased at the rate of 1.20 per cent, 1.54 per cent and 0.34 per cent per annum, respectively in the period under study. Production of sugar increased at the rate of 3.15 per cent per annum whereas, consumption of sugar increased at 3.63 per cent per annum in the entire period. The export of sugar had positive growth of 11.13 per cent per annum. The value of exported sugar witnessed a growth of 12.72 per cent per annum while, there was 1.43 per cent annual growth in unit price of exported sugar. On the other hand quantum of imported sugar recorded a positive growth of 25.86 per cent per annum, value of imported sugar grew at the rate of 28.68 per cent per annum while unit price of imported sugar recorded a positive growth of 2.08 per cent per annum. The growth in area, production and productivity of sugarcane along with production and consumption of sugar in India was found to be relatively stable. The growth in trade of sugar showed high instability. The Indian sugar faced comparative disadvantage and non- competitiveness in the international market. Myanmar was the only loyal market for Indian sugar among the six major Indian sugar importing countries. Among all the factors undertaken, only exchange rate had a significantly negative influence on the sugar export from India. Myanmar had the lowest share of market in the initial years of study which increased gradually and became the highest shareholder of Indian sugar market at the end of study period. The Indian sugar was highly concentrated in a handful of countries. The major problems identified by the Indian sugar exporters were marketing problems, infrastructural problems, Governmental interventions, packaging problems, financial problems and time management. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that steps have to be taken for quality improvement of Indian sugar which includes setting up of storage and grading facilities for sugar. This will help Indian sugar to penetrate new overseas markets leading to higher returns to the exporters and to the country at large.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A STUDY ON AGRICULTURAL GROWTH AND STABILITY IN NORTH-BIHAR- AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 1995) Ranjan, Kumar Priya; Singh, R.K.P.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
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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.