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Objective of the study is to get insights in to following questions Whether agriculture in village is economically viable or not? If yes for which crops? How the surplus is generated in agriculture in cultivation of different crops? How the surplus generated is distributed? To whom? How much portion of the surplus is retained by farmer? What are issues, challenges and risks that are involved or affect generation and distribution of surplus in agriculture?
Initially informal conversation and interviews with farmers are undertaken to gain overview of status of agriculture in village and to make good rapport with them. Through this information about cropping pattern, land holding, irrigation facilities, cultivation practices & problems faced by farmers and marketing practices is gathered. Also informal conversations are held with owners of Agri-service centrers to get information regarding availability and usage of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. After that convenience sampling is done to select respondent for 1
survey questionnaire and semi structured interviews to know generation and distribution of surplus at individual level. During this, attempt was made to have respondents from different area of the village as farming is spread along boundary of the village. Group discussion was carried out to know about challenges and issues involved in agriculture and to check information gathered from informal conversions and interviews.
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1General information about Village:
Village covered under study is Moti Bhujpur (Bhujpur). Village Bhujpur is situated in mundra taluka of Kutch District in Gujarat state. Village is situated 13 km away from Mundra on Mundra Mandvi state highway. It is situated at 60 km from District headquarter Bhuj. Population of Village is 12932. Population is more than doubled in last decade because of industrial migration. It is situated just about 4 kms from Jindal Saw Pipe Limited, 12kms from Mudra port, Adani Wilmar and about 15 kms from Tata Power & Adani Power. It is densely populated village with 2800 households.
agriculture land got consolidated in to hands of Ghadvis. Ghadvis later on some 20 years back created irrigation facilities through bore well and shifted to irrigate farming. Also they diversified cropping pattern from cereals to cash crops and horticultural crops. Another factor that is rapid industrialization in and around village in last decade that changed the primary occupation of villagers to industry based or industry allied jobs. Land rates in the area suddenly shoot up to sky high and during this process many villagers sold their lands for lucrative land rates to land brokers and major chunk of the land changed to non-agriculture status. Now Agriculture land is consolidated in hands of big farmers only. Average land holding per farmer in the village is around 8-10 acres. Around 60-70 households are actively engaged in farming. Exact data of total agriculture land is not available. Only irrigated farming is practiced in the village. Farmers also engaged in other industry allied occupations. Farmers who have irrigation facilities only practice farming; otherwise land is kept fallow or used for fodder crops as rain fed farming is not economically viable owing to increase labour charges, unpredictable monsoons and lucrative opportunities in other sectors such as industries.
fertility. Along with these farmers cultivate Mango and Date-palm as perennial crop. According to farmers they follow this system to reduce risk and dependability on particular crop.
labour cost and time. Though there are fifty tractors in the village, for agriculture use only 8-10 tractors available because many farmers engage their tractors in industrial or civil construction works for regular and periodic payments. Also tractor drawn implements are also limited in no as it is easy for the farmer to hire implements on daily basis than to purchase and maintain them as they require it for implements. Tractor hiring rates ranges between Rs 400-600 per hour for implement operation and otherwise for transport purpose it ranges from Rs 1000-2000 per day. Agriculture implements hiring rates changes according to implements, Specialized Implements such as Rotavator costs Rs 200-250 while other one cost 50-100 Rs per hour.
3.3 Labour:
Rapid industrialization in surrounding areas of village resulted in problems of labour shortage and increasing wage rate. Laboures in area are getting regular wage employment in industries or industry related occupations in nearby areas throughout the year. Also wage rate paid to them by industry ranges from 135-250 rs per day depending upon skills and experience. Through this labourers are getting cash in their hands periodically; also they feel industry jobs are easier than agricultural ones so they prefer to work in industries rather than working in agriculture jobs where they faced problems of seasonal employment and delay in payments. Farmers have to pay Rs 250 per man day for agricultural works and also this rate goes up to Rs 350-400 per person in peak periods. To tackle this problem farmers in the area are practicing system of revenue sharing for cultivation of Cash crops which is labour extensive. In this system Labours from Godhra and Panchmahal district in Gujarat migrate to village for six months and do all manual work in cultivation of cash crops. In turn they one fouth or one fifth of total value of output as compensation for their work. Though majority of the farmers are practicing this system, labour supply in this system is also decreasing year on year. In case of horticultural crops system of pre harvest contract system is followed. In which farmers hands over their orchards to Pre harvest contractors on lum-sum amount for the season. Farmers only look after irrigation provision, in some cases pesticide spraying, while contractor takes care of harvesting and marketing of the produce along with other cultivation practices. These pre harvest contractors are from Anjar taluka of Kutch district. They normally take 3-4 orchards under contracts and have their own labour force.
As stated earlier only source of irrigation water is bore wells. Almost every farmer has got its own bore-well and electricity connection. They use electric submersible pumps draw water from bore-well. Farmers get electricity supply for 8 hrs a day alternatively in day and night over weekdays at charge of Rs 20000 per year irrespective of the usage. But there is very less success ratio in digging of new bore well either it will fail to find water underground or if finds it, gets saline water. Only particular areas in village got good quality ground water. Also water table has gone down to 400-600 ft and salinity problems have increased because of large scale depletion of ground water table for the purpose of drinking and industrial use. Irrigation problem coupled with the labour problem limits farmers from going for the cultivation cash crops for more than one season in year and it also limits them from extending cultivable area.
4 CULTIVATION PRACTICES FOLLOWED FOR COTTON & CASTOR 4.1 Land preparation and organic Fertilizer Mixing:
For cotton and castor, Farmers carry out tractor operations with three different implements to have good tilth for the crop growth. It involves ploughing with MB plough followed by cultivator operation, two times for the cotton and one time in case of castor and finally rotavator operation along with which organic fertilizer application is carried out. For Cotton , farmers use compost
prepared from two tractor load s cow-dung while in case of castor less amount of organic fertilizer is used approximately half of the cotton. On an average Land preparation and fertilizer mixing costs Rs 5000 for cotton cultivation and Rs 3000 for Castor cultivation.
4.2 Sowing:
Farmers use improved seeds for cultivation of cotton and castor. For cotton, farmers use around o.75 to 1 kg seeds per acre for cultivation. Widely used variety of cotton seed cost Rs 900 for 450 gm packet. While in case of Castor, farmers use seed rate of 1 to 1.5 kg per acre. Rate for castor seeds ranges from Rs 350 to 450 per kg.
Three harvesting cycles are carried out in Castor and Cotton generally at interval of 20 to 30 days. Harvesting is done manually and harvested produce is collected at drying yard generally in the center of the farm. On an average Cotton yield varies from 1 to 2 tons per acre while castor yield varies from 1 to 1.5 tons per acre. Yield also depends upon prevailing weather conditions. Untimely rains at harvesting timing and other activities hamper the yield.
Rs 26892
Rs 51843 1
Above pie chart and table contains consolidated data showing average cost of cultivation incurred by Cotton farmer to cultivate cotton on one acre of land area in one season, also it contains distribution of cost in to different factors involved in production, total value of the output produced and surplus generated after deducting cost of cultivation from total value. Some observations as follows: Cost of cultivation of cotton per acre per year is Rs26892 while Total output Value that farmers gets is Rs 51843 per acre so cost constitutes 52 % of the total output value and surplus generated is around 48% of the total output value. Surplus generated in cotton cultivation per acre is 92% of the cost incurred by the farmer for cultivation of the crop. Expenses on labour constitute almost half the (49%) total cost of cultivation per acre so surplus generated is highly depend upon labour rates and availability. Usage and expense on Organic fertilizers is more as compared to Inorganic fertilizers. Pesticides and Machinery cost constitutes 11% & 10 % of the total cost respectively followed by cost of irrigation and seed material.
Rs 17000
Rs 35400
Above pie chart and table contains consolidated data showing average cost of cultivation incurred by Castor farmer to cultivate castor on one acre of land area in one season, also it contains distribution of cost in to different factors involved in production, total value of the output produced and surplus generated after deducting cost of cultivation from total value. Some observations as follows:
Cost of cultivation of cotton per acre per year is Rs 17000 while Total output Value that farmers gets is Rs 35400 per acre so cost constitutes 48% of the total output value and surplus generated is around 52% of the total output value.
Surplus generated in cotton cultivation per acre is 108% of the cost incurred by the farmer for cultivation of the crop. That means farmer get Rs 108 after investing Rs 100 for castor cultivation
Expenses on labour constitute more than half the (52%) total cost of cultivation per acre so surplus generated is highly depend upon labour rates and availability. Usage and expense on Organic fertilizers is more as compared to Inorganic fertilizers. Expenses on Irrigation cost are more as compared to other agriculture inputs.
Both Mango and Date-palm starts giving marketable yield from 5 years of age and onwards. On an average a mano plant produces 30 kg of fruits per tree, but in case of date palms it varies from 30-70kgs per tree. As there is pre harvest contract system is followed, harvesting and marketing is done by contractor only. Farmers are paid with lump-sum amount depending upon no, age and quality of trees. Mango farmer on an average gets 40-60 thousands per acre while Date-palm farmer gets 80 thousands to 120 thousands per acre. Last year according to farmers market rate for mango was Rs 30 per kg and for date-palm it was Rs 60-70 per kg in nearby markets.
Above pie chart and table contains consolidated data showing average cost of cultivation incurred by Mango farmer on one acre of land area in one year when mango orchard enters in to productive stage. It also contains distribution of cost in to different factors involved in production, total value of the output produced and surplus generated after deducting cost of cultivation from total value. Some observations as follows: Cost of cultivation of Mango per acre per year is Rs 20772 while Total output Value that farmers gets is Rs 53900 per acre so cost constitutes 38 % of the total output value and surplus generated is around 62 of the total output value. Surplus generated in Mango cultivation per acre is 1.5 times the cost incurred by the farmer for cultivation of the crop when mango orchard enters productive stage after 5 years of planting. Expenses on labour constitute more than half the (59%) total cost of cultivation per acre as local labour rates are as high as Rs 250-400 per man-day. Capital investment is expenditure that farmer has to incurred for first five years of non productive stage and is distributed over productive years. In case of Mango total 1
expenditure for first years on average comes to Rs 60000 per acre and productive life is around 40 years so for every year cost of Rs 1500 is taken as contribution to capital investment. As it was difficult to get data for expenditure of every non productive year, an approximate per acre expenditure is calculated through group discussion and taken it as reference for cost calculations. Irrigation costs constitute 11% of the total cost followed by machinery for transportation of inputs & other practices and organic fertilizers and pesticides.
Rs 21620
Rs 95000
Above pie chart and table contains consolidated data showing average cost of cultivation incurred by Date-palm farmer on one acre of land area in one year when Date-palm orchard enters in to productive stage. It also contains distribution of cost in to different factors involved in production, total value of the output produced and surplus generated after deducting cost of cultivation from total value. Some observations as follows:
Average Cost of cultivation of Date-palm per acre per year is Rs 21620 while Average Total output Value that farmers gets is Rs 95000 per acre so cost constitutes 23% of the total output value and surplus generated is around 77% of the total output value in productive years.
Surplus generated in Date-palm cultivation per acre more than three times the cost incurred by the farmer for cultivation of the crop when Date-palm orchard enters productive stage after 5 years of planting.
Expenses on labour constitute half the total cost of cultivation per acre as local labour rates are as high as Rs 250-400 per man-day. Capital investment is expenditure that farmer has to incurred for first five years of non productive stage and is distributed over productive years. In case of Date-palm total expenditure for first years on average comes to Rs 80000 per acre and productive life is around 20 years so for every year cost of Rs 4000 is taken as contribution to capital investment. As it was difficult to get data for expenditure of every non productive year, an approximate per acre expenditure is calculated through group discussion and taken it as reference for cost calculations.
Irrigation costs constitute 10% of the total cost followed by machinery for transportation of inputs & other practices and organic fertilizers. Surplus generated in case of date-palm is subject to many risks starting from propagation and other factors discussed below.
strong wind and gets uprooted. Also Date-palm faces problems in propagation as discussed earlier. Yearly yield fluctuations: Both of the crops gives yield only once in year and there is wide range of is yearly fluctuation in yield, this is because un-favorable conditions affects flowering and fruiting in case of Mango and Date-palm and that results in low yield. Yearly price fluctuation: Yield fluctuations in other parts of country affects price of produce in case of Mango and Date-palm. Particularly in case of Mango these fluctuations, play important role in determining price that farmers gets. Land locking:, Land area used for cultivation of these crops is get locked and farmers do not cultivate any other crop on that area for 15-20 years as canopy and root spread of these crops doesnt allow cultivation of other crop except for initial 1-3 years.
12 DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS
In village there is absence of the land leasing practices. This can be due to shortage of labour and lack of availability of good quality irrigation water. Some of the farmers have kept their owned land fallow because of above reasons. Also farmers are hesitant to take loans for agriculture because of their good financial status as explained before. Because of this farmers enjoy almost complete share of surplus generated in agriculture. Only one farmer out of the seven farmers surveyed has taken loan for tractor. He has taken tractor loan of Rs 250000 with interest rate of 10 % for 3 years and have to pay Rs91600 per year but has total surplus generation of Rs 418700 and usage of tractor is more for non agricultural works than in farm. On an average farmer get surplus Rs 300000 per year. This surplus generally finds its way as investment in enhancing farm resources base such as constriction of farm ponds, drip irrigation systems, buying implements or investment in other industry allied business (shops, Garage) and fulfilling daily consumption needs and for savings.