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Vochers for reproductive and child health services: Demand financing scheme in Uttarakhand India
No full textAs government fails to build the canal system to take the water to the farmers.
No full textThe Neera Devghar dam project in Pune district was completed in 2008. But the benefits of the project are yet to reach the farmers as the government has failed to build the canal system to take the water to the farmers. The result is that the water in the dam flows off into the river without benefitting the drought-hit farmers in the four nearby talukas.
“The dam was built and the power rights were sold off. But when it came to making canals to distribute the water to needy farmers, the government was cash strapped. The annual remuneration that the government could afford was Rs 40 crore whereas as per our calculation, at least Rs 360 crore was needed calculating the escalation per year. The state government then asked us how to revive the project,” said Rajas Parchure, director, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, who along with associate professor Anurag Asawa worked on the project.
“On either side of the dam, there needs to be a 208-km and a 225-km long canal system to provide water to the 42,000 hectare area and the nearly 164 villages around. The canal system will help people in Bhor, Khandala, Phaltan and Malshiras areas in Pune district. These districts are facing severe water shortage. They have so much water stored near them, yet they are unable to use it and all the water flows off back to the river,” said Asawa.
“The government as usual wanted to go for a public-private-partnership but the researchers found through their study that a PPP model will be detrimental both for the government and the farmers as the terms and conditions will be anti-farmer. Hence, we thought of replacing the private with the community. Once the benefits of the canals were explained to the farmers, they were ready to contribute,” said Parchure.
“This includes formation of water user associations which will contribute and look over the entire distribution system. Also, there will be no increase in water rates for the farmers and the government needs to give no sops to the private players,” added Parchure.
“We submitted our report in May 2014, but till date no action has been taken to implement any measure. The dam was almost flooded twice after that, but there has been no use of water for the farmers as they continue to face drought like situation in summers,” said Asawa.
“This is not the only dam that is useless to the farmers. The Chithale Committee report says that out of the 601 ongoing irrigation projects, 225 have been under execution for 15 years and 77 for 30 years. If action is not taken as early as possible by government departments, the condition of farmers in Maharashtra is only going to worsen,” added Asawa
Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2014 - 2015
No full textFull Report can be downloaded from
https://mahades.maharashtra.gov.in/publication.do?pubCatId=ES
1 lakh farmers quit agriculture in 5 years in Maharashtra
No full textKOLHAPUR: As many as one lakh families of farmers in the state opted out of agriculture, their sole profession, in the last five years, according to the latest agriculture Census figures.
Experts expressed fears that the trend might continue with the availability of other income sources and tolerance level of the farmers reaching its peak. The final figures of agricultural land holdings for 2015-16 will be released later.
According to the agriculture Census of 2010-11, there were 136 lakh agricultural land holdings in the state. State agriculture and revenue minister Eknath Khadse said the figure has now shrunk to 135 lakh. The minister said land acquisition for industrialization, road widening and creation of new roads have eaten up the agricultural land.
As per the agriculture Census of 2005-06, there were 137 lakh farmers' families in Maharashtra. It means that the number of farmers quitting agricultural activities between 2005-6 and 2010-11 reduced by one lakh.
Similarly, another one lakh farmers opted out of the profession from 2011-12 till today.
Speaking to TOI, Khadse said, "There are 135 lakh land holding families in the state at present. As may 90 lakh of them are marginal farmers, who own less than one hectare land. The fact is alarming as agricultural land is getting divided further into small pieces, which directly affects production. Remaining 45 lakh people are small, medium and large farmers, who actually have the capacity of producing foodgrains at large scale, which can be traded. The marginal farmers are mostly into vegetable or small scale foodgrain production, which has little role in the trade."
Over the last five-six decades, the state has witnessed a successive trend of increase in the number of farmers in terms of land division and population growth. However, the number of farmers in the state started shrinking from 2010-11. The number was 1.37 crore in the state in 2010-11, but went down to 1.36 crore by 2013-14. During the same period, the area of operational holding and average size of operational holding also went down.
In 2010-11, altogether 2,00,05,000 hectares of land was under cultivation in the state, which has now declined to 1,97,67,000 hectares. The average size of operational land holding also dipped from 1.46 hectares to 1.44 hectares.
Sangeeta Shroff, associate professor at Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, said the situation is far more serious. "Of the total labour force in the state, 52.7% are in the agriculture sector. Further division shows that 25.4% are cultivators (land owners), while 27.3% are agricultural labourers. It means that there are more labourers in the state than land owners. If labour force figures from Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad are removed, the employment number through agriculture sector stands at 81.36%. It means there are hardly any means of employment in the rural areas barring agriculture," she said.
She said encouraging agro-processing industries in the rural areas and infrastructure development should be undertaken on priority to control the overall downfall in the sector.
"The biggest factor behind farmers being discouraged to leave agriculture is poor irrigation facilities. The irrigation cover in the state is not more than 18%, of which a huge area is used for sugarcane cultivation. A cash crop like cotton is largely rainfed putting pressure on the farmers for making irrigation arrangements. Besides, foodgrain cultivation is also largely dependent on monsoon, which is adding to farmers' frustration. Unless these issues are tackled, the sector will continue to remain in poor light," Shroff added
Determinants of emission and energy intensities in Indian Organized Manufacturing Sector
No full textSocial determinants of child immunization in the States of Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (India): Special focus on Social Groups
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