Study the Challenges and Opportunities of Agricultural Development in a Village: A Case Study
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Date
2019-05-25
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Department of Extension Education, BAU, Sabour
Abstract
India live in villages and the later continue to be the sole basic units of administration in the country since time immemorial. However, quite ironically, the ‘village’ is often associated with ‘backwardness’, tradition’ or ‘conservative attitude’.
Bihar is a state blessed with fertile lands, diverse climatic situations and large human as well as natural agricultural resources. But it is also a state which faces the persistent problems like fragmented land holdings, poor farm infrastructure, poor access to extension services and high population density and resultant poverty.
The low average yields of most commodities, the huge gaps between the demonstrated and generally realized yields, the low farmers’ income and widespread rural poverty despite the blessed richness of the natural resources needs a holistic system based approach to simultaneously enhance productivity, profitability, equity and environmental sustainability through synergistically integrating crops including horticultural and other cash crops, livestock, fisheries, agro forestry, watershed-based soil and water management, social capital formation, agro-processing and marketing in an end-to end mode.
In order to understand as to how to address the constraints and problems in agriculture to lead to overall development, an in-depth study of one village needed to be undertaken and on the basis of the database, a development programme needed to be undertaken. Only such an experience of working in a village could provide an insight for future village development programmes on large scale. Keeping this in aim in view, this research study entitled “Study the Challenges and Opportunities of Agricultural Development in a Village: A Case Study” was conceptualized with the following specific objectives: 1 To study the situational profile of the farmers and the village. 2 To assess the livelihood diversification pattern among the farmers. 3 To identify the opportunities of agricultural development in the selected Village. 4 To determine the challenges and constraints of the agricultural development in the selected village.
Twin villages, Birnaudha and Barhari of Goradih block in Bhagalpur district of Bihar state which were already selected under FARMER FIRST Programme of ICAR by Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour (BAU, Sabour) were selected purposively for this investigation. This study aimed to build valuable data base for this all-inclusive development programme so that planning and execution of the programme could have a data support and could provide a benchmark for evaluation of achievements of the efforts made under the programme. But total households in these villages numbered more than 1,300. Considering the limitation of a Student’s study with respect to time and resources, only 400 farm families were randomly selected for this investigation. The variables of the study were selected through a lot of discussion with the scientists working in the Farmer First Project, progressive farmers of the villages and other scientists of the University who enjoined wide field experience. These variables were operationally defined and measures were decided objectively and scientifically. For measuring some variables like Socio-economic status, gender participation and marketing behavior of the respondents, well established scales were used and for other variables, schedules were developed. The entire schedule was pre-tested for its reliability and validity. The data collected with the help of schedule was subjected to suitable statistical analysis and results were discussed in the light of literature available in the subject area of the study.
The majority of the respondents (68.75%) were in the age of 36-50 years, belonged to BC II Category (65.0 %), about 47.0 per cent respondents possessed high school and above qualification, while 14.25 per cent were illiterate. Further, the majority of them (86.25%) had nuclear families and family size of 57.50 percent was medium. About 70.00 percent respondents were marginal farmers, 45.0 percent possessed Pucca houses 35.0 percent had mixed type of houses.
Agriculture was the sole occupation of 32.50 percent respondents only. There were 28.75 percent respondents doing the work of labour along with farming. About half of the respondents (52.75%) had an annual income in the range of Rs. 50.001 to 75,000 and income above Rs. 1.0 lakh was of 7.25 percent respondents only. About 54.25 percent had medium level of material possession followed by low (27.25%) and high level (18.50%). Under the above background, the majority of respondents (75.0%) had received some training in agriculture, from one day to more than 10-days duration. But still 53.75 percent respondents had medium level of knowledge followed by 36.25 percent having low level of knowledge of important farm technologies. So, large adoption gap (67.0%) exists with respect to improved technology of commonly cultivated crops. Component-wise, maximum gap was found with respect to Plant protection measures (91.0%). It was followed by seed treatment (90.0%). The adoption gaps were also very large with respect to improved varieties and seed materials (75.0%), intercultural operation (70.0%), water management (66.0%), fertilizer management (63.0%) and sowing methods and time of planting (51.0%). Out of six personalized sources of information, neighbours were used regularly by maximum number of respondents (44.50%) followed by relatives (41.0%). Among mass contact sources, Kisan Diary was most regularly used source of technical information (45.0%), other sources played marginal role.
The majority of the growers (61.12 %) sold their produce immediately after the harvest. The majority of the growers (88.88%) used Tempo/Jeep for transportation of their agricultural produce to the market. Livelihood diversification was found with 48.50 percent respondents at medium level and 27.25 percent at high level.
The Index Value of the financial capitals was highest (62.14) whereas of Human capitals was the lowest (48.92). The associations of Extension contact and mass media contacts with all the five livelihood capitals and the overall security were positive and highly significant. The fertile soil for cultivation was perceived by the respondents to be the most important factor for agricultural development.
Major crops grown in this villages are rice, wheat, maize, potato & other vegetables. However, the agricultural sector in the village is plagued with numerous, and well known, constraints and problems. The present study discusses the issues plaguing the agricultural sector in the village, Bihar and talks about the possible opportunities interventions to make the best use of available resources adopting a multi-pronged strategy of development. It also talks about the village specific problems and suggests ways and means to tackle them.