South 24 Parganas Came Into Existence on 1St of March, 1986 with Its Headquarters in Alipore
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Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan INTRODUCTION Objectives The objective of district planning is to design an integrated and participatory action plan for the development of local area in general and agriculture and allied sectors in particular. The planning process is initiated at grassroots level for which the base level data from the Panchayats have been collected. The objectives of comprehensive district agricultural plan are: To prepare a C-DAP through participatory process involving various organisations and stakeholders. To enable optimum utilisation of scarce natural, physical and financial resources. To assess and plan for the infrastructure required to support the agriculture development. To establish linkages with the required institutional support services, like credit, technology transfer, ICT, research etc. To evolve an action plan for achieving sustainable agricultural growth with food security and cropping system that will improve farmers’ income. Planning process The district planning process went through the following stages: The District consultation meeting started with a meeting with the District Magistrate and ATMA Director and District Planning Officer. The basic objective of the consultation was to build up a common understanding on the planning process, to have a clear understanding on the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders and to ensure the process to be participatory. Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya was officially approached to act as the Technical Support Institution (TSI) and entrusted the task of the DAP formulation as per the directive. All the line departments were requested to sent information and data to the TSI as and when asked by them. A draft CDAP was placed to the department on 8.12.2014 in the crude form for consideration of the department. A first review meeting was held on 8.12.2014 at the Zilla Parishad Bhavan, Alipore under the chairmanship of the DDA (Admn), South 24Parganas with the line departments in which an elaborative and exhaustive discussion was held on one to one basis with the experts entrusted with the formulation of work plan stakeholders. A second and final review meeting was held at Zilla Parishad Bhavan, Alipore 30.12.2014 with the stake-holders to fine tune the draft report through inclusion, revision, and proper shaping of the same into a presentable one. The entire process was participatory and two way communication basis to ensure the preparation of the five year plan realistic, holistic and exhaustive, blended with flavour of the local need. In this process, it was ensured that - The agricultural plans are prepared for the district based on the agro-climatic conditions, availability of technology, trained manpower and natural resources. The local needs / crops including horticultural crops / feed and fodder / animal husbandry / dairying / fisheries / priorities are reflected in the plan. The productivity gaps for important crops and livestock and fisheries are reduced and the returns to the farmers from these are maximized There are quantifiable qualitative changes in the productivities of the above. The livestock and fisheries options are given due consideration as an important source of income. Structure of C-DAP The XII five year plan of the Department of Agriculture and all the stakeholders were paged individually along with the background information. The usual SWOT analysis was also done to justify the work plan by the each stake-holders individually in their concerned chapters. Then the project component in the form of the DPR was elaborated keeping in mind the related directive with the budget summery at the end. An over enthusiastic approach has been avoided considering the existing staff strength of the implementing agency at the locus of the operation. The local need was reflected as much as to make the plan realistic and trustworthy enough to be successful in real sense in increasing the farm income from the existing level. Limitations The major limitation was to get information at the level of GP and to a large extent at the Taluka level. The capacity of the community in terms of planning, resource assessment was almost negligible throughout the district. There was also a problem with regards to availability of some component of the baseline data as part of the primary research. Time constraint, limitations of resources, regular delays in GP-level baseline survey due to non-availability of key informants, holidays and other prior meetings it was not possible to develop the Gram Panchayat level plans. The team had discussions at the Gram Panchayat level, Panchayat Samiti level and also in Block level. The problems increased further as some of the basic data required as per C-DAP manual were not available from some of the concerned departments. Almost all the line departments were new to the whole process, and found it difficult to follow the suggestions/requirements chiefly because of their stereotyped way of working, lack of resources, staff and limitations of time. A lot of data was thus collected from primary and secondary sources like Statistical Abstracts, District Statistical Handbook, District Economic Plan, NGOs, though the SREP of ATMA etc. also. GENERAL DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE DISTRICT Historical background The nomenclature 24-Parganas has been in vogue since 15 July 1757 when Mir Jafar whom the East India Company had just established as Nawab of Bengal ceded to the Company the rights of 24 mahals. The treaty by which the cession is recorded says that and ldquoall the land lying to the south of Calcutta as far as Culpee, shall be under the Zemindari of the English Company and all the officers of this Zemindari shall be under their jurisdiction. The revenue to be paid by it (the company) in the same manner with other Zemindari and rdquo. The Parwana notifying effect to the Treaty mentions the name of the 24 units of granted land. The District of 24-Parganas started taking shape under Clause Nos.2, 3 and 9 of the Regulation of 1793. The respective jurisdictions of the civil and criminal courts for the district and revenue jurisdiction of the District Collector were demarcated by the Regulations. This arrangement remained valid till 1800. Present scenario South 24-Parganas is, indeed, a complex district, stretching from the metropolitan Kolkata to the remote riverine villages up to the mouth of Bay of Bengal, Apart from its staggering size and population, the district administration has to contend with problems typical of metropolitan living in the urban area—such as high population density and overload civic infrastructure—and in complete contrast, in the rural area the lack of transport and communication facilities and weak delivery systems. The present district of South 24 Parganas came into existence on 1st of March, 1986 with its headquarters in Alipore. It then comprised of twoAgricultural Sub-divisions namely Alipore and Diamond Harbour consisting of 30 blocks. Presently there are five administrative Sub-divisions (Alipore, Baruipur, Canning, Diamond Harbour and Kakdwip), 29 blocks consisting of 312 Gram Panchayats and 7 Municipalities. South 24 Parganas is, indeed, a complex district, stretching from the metropolitan Kolkata to the remote riverine villages in the south up to the mouth of Bay of Bengal. While the Alipore sub-division lies very close to the Kolkata metropolis, Kakdwip, Canning and Diamond Harbour sub division lies in the Southern part of the district. Baruipur sub-division is in the middle tier being partly well connected with the urban centre of the district and partly lies close to the Sundarbans. The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forests on earth, are spread over thirteen of the twenty nine development blocks in the district. Sundarbans, formerly Sundarbans, is a vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp forming the lower part of the Ganges Delta, extending about 160 miles (260 km) along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary (India) to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. The whole tract reaches inland for 60-80 miles (100-130 km). A network of estuaries, tidal rivers, and creeks intersected by numerous channels, it encloses flat, marshy islands covered with dense forests. The name Sundarbans is perhaps derived from the term meaning "Forest of Sundari," a reference to the large mangrove tree that provides valuable fuel. Along the coast the forest passes into a mangrove swamp; the southern region, with numerous wild animals and crocodile-infested estuaries, is virtually uninhabited. It is one of the last preserves of the Bengal tiger and the site of a tiger preservation project. The cultivated northern area yields rice, sugarcane, timber, and betel nuts, Beetle vine, vegetable etc. Due to its peculiar geographical location and the dictates of geography, the means of transport and communication in this region are not well developed, with all the attendant consequences. Lack of irrigation has meant mono-cropped agriculture. Breaches in earthen embankments and cyclonic storms mean loss of life and destruction of crops and property on a regular basis. Any development strategy in this ecologically fragile environment must be carefully designed and implemented. South 24-Parganas instead of being an urban fringe stretches from the border of Kolkata to the remoter zone. Hence the district South 24-Parganas is far from being influenced by the cosmopolitan culture of Kolkata. Presently the district encounters some grave problems like excessive density of population, which overload the civic administration and being a rural area predominantly, it lacks an effective network of transport and communications in spite of construction of several bridges, roads and even extension of railways. The Bay of Bengal is the principal source of the economy of South 24-Parganas. The confluence of river Ganga with the sea here forms a congenial physical feature for Pisciculture. Canning and Kakdwip is the major centre for the transaction of fish in the market. The commission agent receives the fish and sells them and the wholesalers transported them in the Kolkata auction market.