Disparities in Agricultural Productivity in Ambedkarnagar District

 

Alok Pandey¹, Chandra Shekhar Dwivedi²*

¹Assistant Professor, Allahabad Dgree College, Allahabad

²Assistant Professor, Regional Institute of Education, NCERT, Bhopal

  

 

ABSTRACT:

Agricultural productivity is defined as the measurement of production and inputs required for that output. The concept of productivity has been used extensively to explain the spatial organization of agriculture. Agricultural productivity is the result of various physio-cultural aspects. This research paper aims at examining variation in crop productivity and relative changes that have occurred in agricultural productivity in 2011 and identifying the deficient villages and formulating a policy to increase their productivity in study area. Present study is based on primary and secondary data. For calculating agricultural productivity Kendall’s Method has been applied in this study. Agricultural productivity increased in the study region because of availability of good irrigation facilities, use of adequate amount of fertilizers and high yielding variety of seeds.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Agriculture is a backbone of Indian economy because of the many significant roles it plays. It is a major source of food to the population and employment opportunities by providing raw materials for the industries.

 

Study on agricultural productivity is so important in a country like India where food requirement needs constant attention to cope the rapid growth of population. Agricultural productivity is defined as the measurement of production and inputs required for that output.

 

The concept of productivity has been used extensively to explain the spatial organization of agriculture. Primarily, per hectare production of crops is known as the measurement of agricultural productivity which is the result of various physio-cultural aspects. It is usually called as the measurement of efficiency in which an agricultural production system employs land, labour and capital.

 

Several statistical techniques have been adopted by social scientists for determining agricultural productivity. Kendall’s (1939) ranking coefficient method is one of the earliest method who used the yield of crops as a criterion to determine agricultural productivity. This method was used by stamp (1958) on world level for some major crops. Ranking coefficient technique was also applied for calculating agricultural productivity in U.P. (India) by Shafi in 1960, Yang(1965), Bhatia (1967) and Bhalla (1978) adopted quantative methods to estimate the agricultural productivity. ‘Factoral Approach’ was suggested by Agrawal (1965) to measure agricultural efficiency in Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh. Agricultural productivity has been calculated on the basis of carrying capacity of land by Jasbir Singh in 1974. Sapre and Deshpandey (1964) adopted the weighted average of ranks while Sinha (1968), Enyedi (1974) and Husain (1976) used the yield index technique for measuring the agricultural productivity. Vaid and Datye (1991) calculated agricultural productivity based on calories per capita of Maharashtra and other several scholars like Julfikar et al. (2007) Singh, M.B. et al.(2007), Zaman and Rahman (2009) and Santosh Kumar and M.B.Singh (2011) have done notable works in this field.

 

The Study Area :

The  region under study, Ambedkarnagar district is located in the eastern part of state of Uttar Pradesh. Astronomically the region lies between 26⁰09’ N to 26⁰40’ N Latitudes and 82⁰11’ E to 83⁰08’ E Longitudes. The region measures 74 kms. from east to west while from north to south it stretches for about 45 kms..

 

Total geographical area of the region is about 2357 sq.km. According to 2011 census Ambedkarnagar region accommodates 2398709 people. The shape of the study region is almost a regular parallelogram with a small projection on north-east jutting into district of Azamgarh. The Ghaghara forms the northern boundary of the district and separates it from the districts of Basti, Santkabirnagar and Gorakhpur. Further, it is bounded by the districts of Faizabad in the west, Sultanpur in the south and Azamgarh in the east. Administratively study region is divided into nine development blocks i.e. Tanda, Baskhari, Ramnagar, Jahangirganj, Jalalpur, Bhiyav, Bhiti, katehari and Akbarpur.

 

 

 

 

Fig. 1

 

 

OBJECTIVES:

The three fold objectives of the present study are as follows:

·             To examine variations in crop productivity and relative changes that have occurred in agricultural productivity.

·             To identify the deficient development block and to formulate a policy to increase their productivity in the study area.

·             To asses correlations between productivity and different related variables.  

 

DATA BASE AND METHODOLOGY :

The present study is exclusively based on secondary data. The required data have been obtained through district statistical handbook Ambedkarnagar from nine development blocks namely Bhiti, Akbarpur, Katehari, Tanda, Jalalpur, Baskhari, Ramnagar, Jahangirganj and Bhiyav that are situated in different parts of Ambedkarnagar District. Major five crops wheat, Paddy, Sugarcane, oilseeds and pulses have bee taken for computing the agricultural productivity. The productivity indexes of crops were calculated following the statistical method formulated by Kendall’s (1939) (table-1) The index represents the yield of all crop in a development block.

 

 

 

 

Table-1 :  Ambedkarnagar District : Agricultural Productivity Quintal per Hectare 2011

 Source : Based on District Statistical handbook, Ambedkarnagar-2011

 

 

 

 

 

Agricultural Productivity:

The pattern of agricultural productivity of Ambedkarnagar region with the help of Kendall’s method has been calculated. The ranking coefficient value use productivity have given presented in table no.-1, while the resultant patterns of productivity high, medium and low have been tabulated in table no.-2.

 

 Table-2:  Ambedkarnagar Region: Agricultural Productivity

Type	Productivity Index	Blocks
High	below-3	Bhiti, Akbarpur
Medium	3 – 6	Katehari , Tanda, jalalpur
Low	Above – 6	Baskhari, Ramnagar, Jahangirganj, Bhiyav

Source: Computed by Author, based on District Statistical handbook, Ambedkarnagar-2011

 

High Agricultural Productivity:

It may be observed from table-2 that the high agricultural productivity is found in the Bhiti and Akbarpur block. Wheat, Paddy, Sugarcane and oilseeds are the dominant crops in this region. It is interesting to note that over 92 percent of the cultivated area in this tract is irrigated by canal and tube wells. The farmers of this region are highly respective to new agricultural innovations as due to infrastructural developments the crop productivity is increased.

 

Medium Agricultural productivity:

Medium agricultural productivity areas cover the Katehari, Tanda and Jalalpur blocks with medium productivity. In the areas of medium productivity, agricultural activities are highly diversified and the farmers are engaged in growing assorted crops, ranging from the high water requiring paddy to less water requiring oilseeds, pulses,. Though modern inputs have been adopted by the farmers but still agriculture in these areas is still well known as subsistence with traditional methods.

 

Agricultural Productivity Ambedkarnagar region

 

 

Low Agricultural productivity:

Baskhari, Ramnagar, Jahangirganj and Bhiyav blocks of the study region are placed in the low agricultural productivity considering the productivity index of this category. It is remarkable that all these blocks are situated in Ghaghara and Majhoi river flood prone areas and are influenced by the frequency of floods resulting into fierce devastation in the concerned regions.

 

 

 

Modern Input Impacts of Agriculture Productivity:

In order to asses the association between agricultural productivity and other related modern input variables. No. of tractors/100 hectare, no. of Threshers/100 hectare, use of fertilizers in kg/hectare, area under HYV seeds to gross cropped area and irrigated  area percent of net sown area are the notable variables that have been used for the above calculation.

 

 

 

Table 3 : Relationship between Agricultural Productivity and other variables 2011

Source : District Statistical handbook, Ambedkarnagar, 2011.

 

 

In 2011, 9 tractors per hundred hectares with highest density was recorded in Akbarpur and Bhiyav block where as the lowest density with 4 tractors per hundred hectares was registered in Jahangirganj block. In the remaining six blocks, the tractor density varies from 5 to 9 tractors per hundred hectares of net sown area. In 2011, 24 threshers per hundred hectares of net sown area with highest density was recorded in Katehari block whereas the lowest density with 14 advance threshers per hundred hectares was registered in Jalalpur block. On an average, 168.16 kg of chemical fertilizers are applied per hectare of cropped area which is above the states average of 145 kg in 2011. Bhiti block first ranks of 206.32 kilogram per hectares with regard to fertilizer consumption. Jahangirganj is the second largest consumer of  fertilizer with 205.54 kg per hectare in the study region. In 2011, the Katehari block ranked first among the blocks in the study region with 80.93 percent with regard to area under HYV sheeds while Bhiti block ranked last with only 73.93 percent in this regard. In 2011, the higher proportion of irrigated area was recorded in Akbarpur with 99.51 percent of total net-sown area while Bhiyav block ranked last.

 

CONCLUSION:

On account of availability of good irrigation facilities, use of adequate amount of fertilizers and high yielding variety of seeds, agricultural productivity has increased considerably in the study region. Inspite of this it varies considerable across the region as well as development blocks. Some development blocks are characterized by good productivity while others with low productivity. As such notable change in development blocks has also been seen. In order to achieve positive and fruitful association between use of chemical fertilizers and agricultural productivity, there is need of increased scientific use of organic manures and chemical fertilizers in Ambedkarnagar district as a whole. This requires block wise soil testing and assessment of specific fertilizer need. Thus the main concern of the planners should be to increase the productivity in general and in deficient blocks in particular by adopting ecofriendly agricultural practices.

 

REFERENCE:

Agrawal, P.C., 1965, Measurement of Agricultural Efficiency  in Bastar District : A Factoral Approach, Proceedings of the Summer School in Geography held at Nainital, Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

Bhalla, G.S., 1978, Spatial Pattern of Agricultural Labour Productivity, Yojana, Vol. 22, No. 3, PP. 9 - 11

 Bhatia, S.S., 1967, A New Approach to Measure Agricultural Productivity in Uttar Pradesh, Economic Geography, Vol. 43, No.3, PP. 244-260

 Enyedi, G.Y., 1964, Geographical types of Agriculture in : Applied Geography in Hungary, M. Pecsi,(Ed.) Budapest.

Husain, M., 1966, A Approach to Measurement of Agricultural Productivity of the Sutlej- Ganga Plain of India, Vol. 38, No.3, PP. 230-236

Julfikar, M. and Ali Mantaj, 2007, Level of Agricultural Development in Malda District, West Bengal, The Geographical Review of India, Kolkata, Vol. 69, No.2, PP. 178-186

Kendall, M.G., 1939, The Geographical Distribution of Crop Productivity in England, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 162, PP. 24-28.

Rehman, H., Wahab, A. and Asif, 2008, Agricultural Productivity and Productivity Regions in Ganga-Yamuna Doab, The Geographer, Vol. 55, No.1, PP. 10-21.

Sapre, S.G. and Deshpande, V.D., 1964, Inter-District Variations in Agricultural Efficiency in Maharashtra State, India Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.19, No. 1, PP. 242-252.

Shafi, M., 1960, Measurement of Agricultural Efficiency in U.P., Economic Geography, Vol. 36, No. 4, PP. 296-305.

Siddiqui, N.A. and Ahmad, M., 1999, Spatio-temporal changes in the Crop-land Use Efficiency in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, The Geographer, Vol. 31, No. 1, PP. 77-85.

Singh, Jasbir, 1974, A New Technique for Measuring Agricultural Efficiency in Haryana, India, The Geographer, Vol. 19, No.1, PP. 24 - 27.

Singh, M.B. and Singh, D.K., 2007 Analysis of Agricultural Productivity and Its Relationship with Irrigation in Mirzapur District, U.P., Indian National Geographer, Vol.22, PP.169–180.

Sinha, B.N., 1968, Agricultural Efficiency in India, The Geographer, Vol. 15, PP. 115-127.

Stamp, L.D., 1958, The Measurement of Land Resources, Geographical Review, Vol. 48, No. 1, PP.1-9

Vaid, V. and Datya, V.S., 1991, Agricultural Productivity of  Maharashtra Based on Calories Per Capita, NGJI, Vol. 37. Pt. 4, PP. 309-317.

Zaman, K. and Rahman H., 2009, Identification of Productivity Regions in Ganga-Yamuna Doab : A Regional Approach for Agricultural Development, NGJI, Vol. 55, Pt. 3, PP. 55-64.

Kumar Santosh and Singh, M.B., 2011, Disparities in Agricultural Productivity in Ballia District: A Perception Survey, National Geographical Journal of India, Vol. 57, Pt. 3, PP. 9-14.

 

 

 

Received on 11.07.2017       Modified on 22.07.2017

Accepted on 05.08.2017      © A&V Publication all right reserved