AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN UTTARAKHAND ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Boctor of $I)tlas(opt)p IN GEOGRAPHY BY MUMTAJ AHMAD Under the Supervision of Dr. Shamsul Haque Siddiqui ( Reader) DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2002 ABSTRACT The study region of the present research work, Uttarakhand comprising eight districts namely, Nainital, Almora, Pithoragarh of Kumaun, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Tehri-Garhwal, Pauri-Garhwal and Dehradun of Garhwal division. It extends from 28°43'24" and 31°27'30" N latitude and 77°34'27" and 80°7'22" E longitudes. It encompasses an area of 51,125 square kilometres and account total population of 5.926 million (according to Census of India 1991). The eocnomy of this region depends on agriculture, where more than 80 per cent of its population dependent upon this source. Being a hilly area, there is scarcity of agricultural land and the share of per capita cultivated land is very low. The present study is carried out for the period from 1979-80 to 1994-95. It is based on secondary soruces of data. There are the following techniques have bene used by the author for the analysis of the present study as follows. i) The physical setting of Uttarakhand has been described in detail. ii) To examine the trends of agricultural development, trend lines have been plotted with the help of regression equation Y = a + bX, regression lines make it possible to show the exact change in area and production of different crops. iii) To assess the development of agriculture by the diffusion of technological and institutional factors per thousand hectares of cultivated land has been opted for the analysis of agricultural mechanization i.e. tractors, pumpsets, wooden plough and iron plough. Besides, consumption of fertilizers (kg per hectare), irrigation, agricultural credit societies, agricultural workers, literacy and land holdings are taken into account. iv) The indices of crop productivity, have been calculated on the basis of Yang's yield index method for two periods 1979-80 and 1994-95. v) The role of technological and institutional factors in the development of agriculture has been examined with the help of correlation analysis, factor analysis and composite mean Z-score statistical technique. The major objective of the present study are : 1. To analyse the importance of physical setting of the region which facilitates basic necessities for agricultural practices. 2. To analyse the landuse pattern, cropping intensity and the trends of growth in area, produciton and yield of major food crops of Uttara- khand. 3. To assess the spread and diffusion of technological and institutional factors in the study area. 4. To examine the spatio-temporal development of agriculture with reference to crop productivity in the study area. 5. To examine the impact of tehcnological and institutional factors on the development of agriculture in Uttarakhand. 6. To measures the levels of agricultural development in the study area. 7. To suggest appropriate guidelines for future development of agriculture in Uttarakhand. For better assessment, the present work is divided into six chapters, which are as follows : Chapter First deals with physical factors like relief, geology, drainage system, climate, soil and natural vegetation of Uttarakhand. Chapter Second presents the concept of agricultural development and highlights theoretical aspects of technological and institutional factors relating to agriculture. Chapter Third describes the trends of agricultural development with special reference to landuse pattern cropping intensity, growth rate of area, production and yield of major food crops and their irrigated area for four period i.e. 1979-80, 1984-85, 1989-90 and 1994-95. Chapter Four describes the spatial distribution of technological and institutional factors in Uttarakhand. Chapter Fifth devoted to spatio-temporal development of agriculture with reference to agricultural productivity. Chapter Six focusses the patterns of agriculture development and technological and institutional factors in the study region. The technological and institutional factors in the study region have been assessed in three ways. Firstly, an attempt has been made to determine the inter-relationship among independent variables through correlation analysis for the period 1979-80 and 1994-95, secondly, the precise role of various indicators of agricultural development through Factor analysis. Thirdly, it exmaines the levels of agricultural development through composite mean Z-score technique. At last author has incorporated summary and many more suggestions regarding the development of agriculture in Uttarakhand. It has been observed that the percentage of gross cropped area to the total reported area slightly decrease from 21.37 per cent to 21.26 per cent during the period 1979-80 to 1994-95. The percentage decrease in gross corpped area is due to new construction of settlements and roads in the region. An analysis of the trends of agricultural development reveals that among cereals, wheat is the first ranking crop. The linear growth rate of area under wheat increased by 53.50 per cent while production increased by 52.25 per cent during the period 1979-80 to 1994-95. Rice is the second leading crops in the study area. The growth rate of area under rice decreased by 0.9 per cent, while the production icnreased by 68.8 per cent during the period studied. The area under pulses has increased in fifteen years except in case of gram and masoor, while the production recorded are increased in all the pulses except gram. Besides, masoor is the leading crop among other pulses in Uttarakhand. It occupies largest area and improved its position in production. Among oilseeds soyabean, rapeseed and mustard and sesamum have achieved leading position in Uttarakhand. The phenomenal increase in oilseeds is due to the favourable climatic conditions of the study area. Uttarakhand is not an important producer of sugarcane as compared to the sugarcane belt of western and eastern Uttar Pradesh, it is mainly cultivated in tarai-bhabar tract of the study region. Potato and onion are getting popular in Uttarakhand and its area and production both are gradually increasing. The development and expansion of irrigation facilities have increased the irrigated area under various foodcrops in Uttarakhand. The food crops area under irrigation was 3.00 lakh hectares in 1979-80, which increased to 3.78 lakh hectares in 1994-95. Among all the food crops, sugarcane was heavily irrigated and more than 90 per cent of its area received irrigation. The areal increase under irrigation is due to increase in the number of tubewells, pumpsets, canals and irrigation by other sources (ponds, lake, wells and tanks) in Uttarakhand. The increase in irrigated area may be seen as glimpse of farmers awakening and the begining of revolution, which helps in agricultural development of Uttarakhand. The total consumption of fertilizers has increased from 31.26 kg per hectare of cropped land in 1979-80 to 67.43 kg per hectare in 1994-95. The highest consumption of fertilizers reported was in Nainital district (206.09 kg per hectare). The number of tractors per thousand hectare of cultivated land is very low, being of 5.53 tractors in 1979-80, this ratio however increased to 15 tractors per thousand hectare of cultivated land in 1994-95. The total area under HYV of seeds was 3,15,476 hectares which rose upto 6,83,543 hectares in 1994-95. The high yielding seeds programme has been successful in tarai-bhabar tract of the study area; while in other parts of Uttarakhand the adoption of this technology has been very slow. It is observed that the nubmer of agricultural credit societies per lakh of population decreased during the period 1979-80 to 1994-95. Land holding is the basic unit of decision making in agriculture. More than 70 per cent of the farmers belong to the marginal class with less than one hectare of cultivated land in Uttarakhand. Subsistance type of farming is practiced in this area, because majority of the farmers depend on small and marginal holdings for their sustenance. The study of spatio- temporal development of agriculture v^^ith reference to agricultural productivity for two periods of time (1979-80 and 1994-95) indicates that during one and a half decades, there was a shifting of districts of high, medium and low productivity. An analysing of areal change in agricultural productivity indicates the overall increase in the productivity area under pulse, oilseeds and cashcrops excepting cereals. The increase in productivity area under these corps is due to better farm management and use of good quality seeds, which gives maximum returns to the farmers. The farmers of this region are therefore taking interest in cultivation of these crops for commercial purpose. The factor analysis of fifteen variables for the year 1979-80 indicates that 83.86 per cent of the total variance is explained by three factors (Fj 55.04 per cent, F^ 22.36 per cent and F^ 11.46 per cent),while during 1994-95, 90.50 per cent of the total variance is explained by these three factors (F, 56.97 per cent, F^ 22.30 per cent, F^ 11.23 per cent). The study of levels of agricultural development based on composite mean Z-score indicates that even after a lapse of fifteen years, there is slight change in the spatial pattern of high, medium and low levels of agricultural development. The farmers belonging to the district of high levels of agricultural development enjoy better irrigation facilities, use of fertilizers, use of HYV of seeds and implements and machinery, while in the low levels of agricultural development, the impact of these variables are comparatively low. In subsistence farming in Uttarakhand, there are no saving and therefore no capital formation takes palce.