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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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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Economic appraisal of small Tea farms of Sonitpur district (Assam)
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar), 2019) Das, Abhijit; Mishra, R.R.
    The present study aims at estimating the cost involved in production of green tea leaves for small tea growers and income generated thereof in Sonitpur district of Assam. The primary data were collected from 100 small tea growers drawn from fifteen randomly selected villages of two randomly selected blocks of Sonitpur district of Assam by conducting interview of individual respondents who were classified into lower-small, medium-small and higher-small tea growers on the basis of their land holdings. The secondary data were collected from various published and unpublished sources. The data related to area, production and productivity of green tea leaves were collected for the period of 2003-04 to 2017-18. For detailed analysis, the whole period was divided into three sub-periods i.e., period I (2003-04 to 2007-08), period II (2008-09 to 2012-13) and period III (2013-14 to 2017-18). The overall compound growth rates of area under tea for both the state of Assam and the district of Sonitpur were positive (0.06 per cent and 1.19 per cent respectively). But negative growth rate (-1.03 per cent) was found in area for the state in period-III (2013-14 to 2017-18)which was statistically significant at five per cent level of probability. Shift of land for non-agricultural purposes such as construction of roads, construction of buildings, growing urbanisation, et cetera may be the reason for negative growth rate. Compound annual growth of production of green tea leaves was found positive in overall period for both the state and the district. But negative growth rate (-1.86 per cent) in production was found in period-I (2003-04 to 2007-08) for the district, which was statistically significant at five per cent probability level. Use of low quality input materials and lack of awareness of appropriate production technology may be the reason for negative growth rate of production for that period. Productivity also showed similar trend in comparison with production. The overall growth rate of productivity was positive for both state and the district. Due to decline in production in period-I, productivity also showed negative growth rate (-2.49 per cent) in the district during that period, which was significant at five per cent probability level. The majority of small tea growers (65.00 per cent) were in middle age group (30-40 years). More than half (58.00 per cent) of the sample small tea growers had medium size of households (5-7 members).Huge proportion of sample tea growers (86.00 per cent) were educated up to graduation level. Larger proportion of sample small tea growers (35.00 per cent) belonged to forward castes followed by OBC (28.00 per cent), SC (19.00 per cent) and ST (18.00 per cent). Out of the total operational land holding 95.57 per cent of land was used for cultivation of tea, and only 4.43 per cent of land was used to produce other crops or kept fallow. Larger proportion (42.00 per cent) of sample small tea growers were dependent on tea cultivation for earning their livelihood. Major portion (61.38 per cent) of annual income was obtained from tea cultivation. More than half (57.00 per cent) of the sample households had their annual income exceeding Rs. 10.00 lakh. Larger proportion (59.00 per cent) of the sample respondents owned pucca houses. It was observed that total cost of cultivation for lower-small, medium-small and higher-small tea growers was Rs. 139339.47, Rs. 144767.21 and Rs. 152710.68 respectively. The total cost of the three categories of the small tea growers indicated that the total cost varied directly with the land size of small tea growers. The examination of efficiency parameters of tea cultivation indicated that yield (tonne per hectare), gross return (Rs. per hectare), net return (Rs. per hectare), benefit-cost ratio and cost of production of green tea leaves (Rs. per tonne) per hectare of tea plantation were 28.59, 483639.68, 338033.80, 3.30 and 16916.39 respectively. It was found that the highest value addition took place at Industry level, where the cost of value addition was Rs. 129.18 per kilogram, followed by wholesalers (Rs.35.92 per kilogram), retailers (Rs. 17.80 per kilogram) and green leaf collector (Rs. 3.20 per kilogram). The analysis also revealed that the net incomes of small tea growers and green leaf collectors were Rs. 2.63 and Rs. 1.86 per kilogram of green tea leaves respectively; and for processors, wholesalers and retailers these were Rs. 20.00, Rs. 2.50 and Rs. 4.00 per kilogram of made tea, respectively. It was observed that non-availability of workers in the peak plucking season, lower price of green tea leaves, non-settlement of land records of the small tea growers in the government offices and high price fluctuation of green tea leaves were the common problems faced by the small tea growers in the study area during production and marketing of green tea leaves.