Study of irrigation sources and cultivation area for Cereals & Pulses in the district of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh (India)
Abstract
Cereals and pulses playa significant role in the diet of population. As per WHO, the recommended ratio is 2:1 for cereals and & pulses. However, there are different reasons which have gone against the production of pulses in general. Cereals on the other hand, have picked up larger portion in overall cultivation and consequently, the gross & net sown area are more under the cultivation of cereals. Currently, the ratio between cereal to pulses production ranges from 8:1 to 6:1. In this paper, it is found that the ratio between cereals and pulses which was 7.3:1 in the year 2012-13 increased to 7.7 1 in the year 2018-19. The study found that there was not much change in the gross & net area sown in the district of Meerut from the year 2012-13 to 2018-19. Irrigated area was also constant in both the years. Furthermore, production of different cereals and pulses are studied to know whether there is any change in their production due to change in the availability of water for irrigation during studied years in the district of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
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Introduction
Humankind is primarily fed with agricultural products since ages. Cultivable land and resources required to cultivate crops has been limited to humankind. With ever increasing population, pressure is mounting up to produce more and more from every acre to feed population. For crop production, besides many other resources to ensure higher productivity, water is the most important critical resource. Besides a rain, which still is main source of water for agriculture; people at large have tried to innovate and build mechanical tools to pump out water from ground or taking water from one place to other through canals etc, since ages. History is filled with stances wherein rulers in the past have spent good amount of their revenues on ensuring water to farmers. This is continuing with modern day governments of every country.
All man-made means used to water agriculture fields are termed as irrigation source. Irrigation has become most critical input of agriculture production process. Canal is most critical among others. Canals have been in the past and now remained major resource. However, it is not easy to build canals on one hand and on the other hand, it is not possible to ensure canal reaching every field in nook & corner of the country. It has led to develop ways and means to ensure water reaching every possible field by other sources. In the past, means like Rahat, man-driven pulleys were used to lift water from underground sources. Mechanisation has made it little easy. Diesel generators have become common ways to pump put water now and perhaps easily accessible to farmers.
In general, all above mentioned types of irrigation are termed as Surface Irrigation Method. Surface irrigation has become the commonly used source to ensure water for cultivation. To summarise, surface irrigation includes canals, tube wells of all types, & traditional means of irrigation like Rahat etc. In the year 2018-19, irrigation from canals was 14.9%, government tube well 1.2% & private tube wells was 83.9%.
With decreasing level of availability in water at large and water for irrigation has been an area of concern for governments. Per capita availability of water which was around 5247 cubic meter in 1951 has gone down to 1453 cubic meter in 2015. Still with the above change, irrigation has positively influenced agriculture in Uttar Pradesh in general and district of Meerut in particular in last couple of years. Today, including Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh is naturally blessed to have a strong irrigation system, which is having the third highest gross irrigated area of 82.5% in 2014-15. In total, Uttar Pradesh has around 74659 kms of canals, 28 major and medium-lift canals, 249 minor lift canals, 69 reservoirs/budhis and about 32,000 running tube wells operated by the government. Tube wells are the major sources of irrigation. Tube wells have 80.2% share in the total irrigation sources, followed by canals which is 17.9%. Availability of water in the state and the district has made farmers growing crops like rice and sugarcane which require large quantities of water.
MAP-1: Meerut district on India Map MAP-2: Meerut district within the state of Uttar Pradesh, India MAP-3: Meerut district map giving details of irrigation sources etc.
Conclusion
The paper has studied availability of water through different irrigation sources in the district of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh (India) in the years 2012-13 & 2018-19 and found that there was no change in terms of net irrigated area. In the year 2012-13, the net irrigated area was 196462 hectares which remained almost same in the year 2018-19, i.e., 196408 hectares with marginal decrease of 0.03%. However, among different sources of irrigation, ratio of private tube wells increased in the year 2018-19 while share of canals & government tube wells decreased corresponding to the year 2012-13. The ratio of private tube wells saw a jump of 2.7% from the year 2012-13 to 2018-19. On the other hand, share of canals and government tube wells reduced by 11.9% & 6.9%. It means although there was apparent shift to ensure water for irrigation from private sources, the net irrigated area remained same in both the years. Consequently, it was it was the reason for net area remaining the same in both the years in the district.
Further, it can be concluded as there was no change in the gross & net area sown along with no major change in the availability of water for irrigation different sources in studied years in the district of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, area under cultivation of cereals and pulses largely remained intact in both the years of 2012-13 & 2018-19. Area under cereals saw overall change by 0.2%, but pulses saw a decrease by 5.5% from the year 2012-13 to 2018-19. In absolute terms, where area under cereals was 17728 thousand hectares in the year 2012-13, it was 17696 thousand hectares in the year 2018-19. Among cereals, wheat & paddy were two major crops which were having majority of coverage in both the years. For other cereals, namely Juar, bajra, maize and barley, area under cultivation was reduced corresponding to the year 2012-13 in the year 2018-19. Reduction in the area under cultivation for juar was the highest among all with 18.3%.
Regarding pulses, area under cultivation witnessed a decrease by 5.2% from the year 2012-13 to the year 2018-19. Gram, urd & Arhar were grown primarily in the district of Meerut in both the years of study. In absolute terms, area under gram, urd and Arhar was 614, 569 & 311 thousand hectares in the year 2012-13. In the year 2018-19, it changed to 572, 567 & 251 thousand hectares for gram, urd & Arhar respectively. The study reveals that arhar saw major reduction in the area of cultivation from year 2012-13 to 2018-19. Reduction was by 19.3%. Gram was another pulses, which also observed reduction by 6.8% from year 2012-13 to 2018-19. Moong on the other hand, was one of the pulses in the district whose area under cultivation increased by 9.5% from the year 2012-13 to 2018-19. Urd observed marginal decrease by 0.4% in studied years.
It can overall be construed as there was no considerable change in the gross sown area, net sown area, irrigated area, irrigation sources in the district of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India; consequently, the cropping pattern remained almost same in the years of study, leading to area under cereals and pulses also seen no change from the year 2012-13 to 2018-19. However, within crop type, shifting from one crop to another is seen which is also marginal except for juar in cereals and arhar in pulses. VI. SUGGESTIONS 1. Cereals and pulses playa very significant role in the diet of people in the district and overall, in the country, therefore more attention to be given to pulses as their share is decreasing. 2. It seems that as cereals are seen as means to earn more, farmers are sticking to production of cereals and not pulses. Therefore, governments should motivate farmers to move to cultivation of pulses as well, so that diet can be balanced. 3. As reduction is observed in the contribution by canals in providing irrigation water, state & central governments should pay attention to this fact also. Else, the cost of production will keep increasing. 4. Likewise, government tube wells have seen decrease in their share to net irrigated area in the district of Meerut. It gives the impression that people are not having confidence on government system to ensure water for their crops. 5. Private tube wells are increasing contribution to net irrigated area in the district. It signifies two facts. One, people in the district are becoming self-sufficient and two, they do not believe in government sources of irrigation in fulfilling their needs of irrigation water. Increase in share of tube wells, certainly will increase cost of production. It will have circular repercussions on public at large. 6. It can also be construed from the study that gross sown area has reached its peak in the district of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh India as no change is observed during five years, i.e. from the year 2012-13 to 2018-19. Therefore, local governments should focus on providing training to farmers in the district on how to increase production of different crops by using modern day agricultural means and techniques. 7. Farmers should acquire knowledge about use of fertilisers, agrichemicals etc in such a way that should help in deceasing cost of production, as well as do not impact climate negatively. Local administration to help farmers in this area as well.
