Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Ojha A and Sheikh MM
Keywords : Agriculture land use; Land use Pattern; Agricultural planning; Agriculture resources
The present study deals with agriculture land use pattern of
Bharatpur district for better land use planning with the growing population and
limited resources, it is imperative to take into account proper planning of
land and its resources to meet the needs of future generations. Land is the basic
resource and a gift of nature from which man gets varieties of products to meet
his need. Food is the basic necessity of man, which he gets from the land. The
continues rise of population is inevitable and to meet the food requirement
efforts have to be made to make optimum use of the land and get as much as out
of it. The development of irrigation projects are the major steps in direction
of bringing more culturable waste land under cultivation and also increasing
the production and intensity of cultivation. However, the major irrigation
projects need to be designed after considering all environmental and ecological
aspects, so that the ecological balance could be maintained.
According to land use
principles and the forest policy of India, some balance has to be maintained
between in various land uses. Mono land uses may lead to economic and
ecological conflicts of long range due to short range sustainability.
Therefore, diverse land use planning according to the carrying capacity of land
is a precondition for any systematic development programme. With this
philosophical guideline in mind, what follows in the chapter is description of
existing land use pattern, with special emphasis on agriculture. Certain
criteria underlying land use and condition of soil and drainage, i.e., land
capability factors, are also discussed for an integrated understanding and
diagnosis of ecological problem. In the end, environmental management plan with
reference to agriculture is given as curative and reinforcing measure.
Geographical
setting
The district Bharatpur
is situated on the extreme eastern part of the state of Rajasthan. District
Bharatpur owes its name to the former capital town of the then princely state
of Bharatpur of Rajputana. It is surrounded by the district of Gurgaon of the
Haryana state in the north, Agra and Mathura of Uttar Pradesh in the east,
Dholpur, Alwar, and Swai Madhopur districts of Rajasthan in the south and west,
respectively. It spreads over an area of 5,066 Sq. km. Which is 1.48 percent of
the total area of Rajasthan. As per census 2011, total population of the
district was 25,48,462, whereas it was 20,98,323 during 2001 census, thus
registering 27.05 percent growth in population between 2001 and 2011, with
urban and rural population is 495,099 and 20,53,363 respectively.
Existing
land use pattern
Land has been the
important and fundamental resource and the medium of production from ancient
times. Therefore, every region whether that is plain, plateau, field, uneven
/rough terrain, it points towards the historic background of cumulative social
level and regional unstable geographical facts. On the other hand, it also
develops the side of nature as resources provider. Geomorphology and local
environment play a major role in life and living standard of man. The analysis
of land use pattern has been done as per revenue records for the year 2011
given in table below at tehsil levels. Bharatpur district with least desertic conditions
has been an inhabited area from ancient days and is therefore fairly inhabited
and most of the land has been brought under cultivation, irrespective of its
fertility or suitability. Today only the hilly and barren rocky land or land
under water logging is left area. Agriculture is done intensively to the extent
that the beds of tank are cultivated during rabi season, as soon as they get
empty after water is drained of the irrigation. The land use data reveal that
land in the district is intensively cultivated and about 85 percent land is
cultivated. In Nadbai and Kumher areas the intensity of cultivated land is even
more than 90 percent fallow and waste land are only 20.8 percent about 27.2
percent cultivated land is double cropped. However, the irrigated land is only
28 percent. A sizeable land of about 10 percent is not available for
cultivation most of which is under water bodies, hills and Kewla deo national
park.
Agriculture
land use
The prosperity of an
agricultural area largely depends on the efficient utilization of potential
agricultural land. These lands are the means of providing food which every
human being requires every effort is made by man to get as much as he can get
from his land, which often creates problems of over exploitation in the form of
reduction in soil fertility. Increase in salinity as well as water logging.
Through command area is being intensively used for cultivation, but the use
does not seem to be proper and balanced. For ecological balance the land use
pattern has to be relational with areas under various uses like forest pastures
etc. The recent concept of social forestry to develop forest land in all the
villages is totally missing in the region, and even though there are hilly and
rocky land in the area, such uses are almost negligible. Because of the
excessive exploitation of land practically area under waste land and groves in
negligible to about 1.2 percent. Even there is lack of grazing land which is only
about 1.7 percent of the total area of the district. However, the hills could
not be cultivated by man and therefore about 11 percent land is not available
for cultivation comprising of barren hilly of rocky land & land under water
bodies, rail, road, and settlements.
Land
use in command area
The land use pattern in command area is almost similar to the overall land use pattern of the district as is evident from the table 01.
Table 1: Land use in Command Area in Bharatpur District.
|
|
|
Land use in Ha. |
||||
# |
Name of Tehsils |
Total Area of Village (in Ha.) |
Forest |
Irrigated by Source |
Unirrigated Including Follow Land |
Culturable Waste including Gochar & Graves |
Area not Available for cultivation
|
Under Lift
Irrigation |
|||||||
1. |
Pahari |
21773.36 |
- |
7623.84 |
11393.65 |
450.32 |
2305.55 |
2. |
Deeg |
20788.32 |
- |
3452.46 |
14273.01 |
451.23 |
2611.62 |
3. |
Kumher |
14306.08 |
- |
2751.83 |
10761.33 |
55.40 |
737.52 |
4. |
Bharatpur |
5175.10 |
- |
2156.33 |
2709.82 |
25.98 |
282.97 |
5. |
Rupbas |
1503.14 |
- |
954.75 |
426.00 |
11.00 |
111.39 |
6. |
Kaman |
20078.49 |
72.84 |
4721.76 |
10315.62 |
1347.19 |
3621.08 |
7. |
Nagar |
27939.78 |
- |
8129.47 |
16489.38 |
360.54 |
2960.39 |
8. |
Nadbai |
22850.60 |
- |
14584.86 |
6802.60 |
365.36 |
1097.78 |
|
Total |
134414.87 |
72.84 |
44375.30 |
73171.41 |
3067.02 |
13728.30 |
Under Flow
Irrigation |
|||||||
1. |
Pahari |
11267.32 |
4.05 |
4233.16 |
4732.50 |
476.48 |
1821.13 |
2. |
Deeg |
28255.49 |
989.34 |
8075.69 |
16680.66 |
525.37 |
1984.43 |
3. |
Kumher |
29710.26 |
- |
8244.71 |
19232.72 |
345.20 |
1887.63 |
4. |
Bharatpur |
34587.33 |
2790.00 |
13767.43 |
14540.01 |
183.12 |
3306.77 |
5. |
Rupbas |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
6. |
Kaman |
13035.37 |
- |
6721.80 |
5010.84 |
190.81 |
1111.92 |
7. |
Nagar |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
8. |
Nadbai |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Total |
116855.77 |
3783.39 |
41042.79 |
60196.73 |
1720.98 |
10111.88 |
|
G. Total |
251270.64 |
3856.93 |
85418.09 |
133368.14 |
4788.00 |
23840.18 |
|
Percentage |
100 |
1.6 |
33.9 |
53.0 |
1.9 |
9.4 |
The forest cover in
only about 1.6 percent while about 87 percent land is cultivable out of which
about 34 percent is irrigated. Only about 1.9 percent area consists of waste
land while 9.4 percent land is not available for cultivation. As such 77.4
percent of the total area of the district is under cultivation. It is again
interesting to note that in the tehsils under command area the percentage of
cultivated land in quite high varying between 79 to 92 percent. The land use
pattern in the command area is still high as about 86 percent of the total area
comprises of cultivable land. The area under forest in the district is about 5
percent, and mostly the area is in Bayana tehsil which is outside the command
area. In the command area the land under forest is only 3856 hectares or about
1.6 percent. The irrigated area is only about 27.8 percent of the total area of
the district. However, in Deeg and Nagar tehsils less than percent area is
irrigated (Table 1).
Problems
and prospects of land use development
For rational land use
planning appraisal of soil and land resources is essential. Although
substantial portion of land is under agriculture, a large chunk of land in
Bharatpur is affected by soil erosion and other problems. There are as much as
40.58 sq. km. of eroded land in the district while about 122.54 sq. km has
turned into rocky land seek due to degradation of forest areas and other
erosion problems. Such eroded lands are quite significant in the tehsils of
Bayana, Bharatpur and Kaman. Besides, about 26.89 sq. kms. Of land is salt
affected and suffer from salinity problems, mainly in Kaman and Rupbas Tehsils.
In addition, there is sizeable extent of Culturable waste land in Bayana, Kaman
and Weir Tehsils All these degraded lands are caused mainly by forest
degradation, water logging, and improper use of land, over-grazing and the
existence of barren and rocky areas. Small extent of land (about 8.59) sq. km),
particularly in Bharatpur tehsil, is also affected by water logging. In view of
these problems mentioned above, some curative measure--engineering, biological,
administrative and social engineering are necessary. They are being discussed
here under the rubric of environmental management plan.
Impact
on agricultural land use
The irrigation project
is bound to have great impact upon the agricultural prospects of the command
area. The scheme shall be providing irrigation facilities to 1,80,000 hectares
of CCA in seven tehsils of Bharatpur. It may be seen that 86,500 hectares
unirrigated crop land shall be benefited by irrigation facility. The total area
under principal Kahrif crops shall increase from 42,000 hectares to 1,02 000
hectares; while area under principal rabi crops shall increase to 1.16 lac.
Hectare. Thus, total cropped area under major crops shell increase from 1.99
lacs to 2.16 Lacs hectares. In all about 86,500 hectares additional crop land
shall be added due to canal irrigation. The total net value of product in the
unirrigated area of 1.136 lacs hectares is Rs. 542.30 lacs which will increase
to 736.76 lacs after the introduction of canal irrigation. The average per
hectare production shall also increase considerably.
Surplus
food grain
On the basis of
recommendations of expert of Nutrition Research Laboratories, Hyderabad as well
as other studies; standard per capita choleric requirement of 2400 calories a
day has been assumed for which a total of 220 kg. Per year food grain is
required for a person. Assuming an average production of between 15 to 20 quintals
per hectare, the total production of food grain in the command area is expected
to about 41.5 Lac quintals. On the basis of standard requirement of 220 kg. Per
capita the total food grain requirement for the population of 200 as expected
to about 14.5 Lac for the command area works out to about 31.00 Lac quintal.
Thus, a surplus of about 10.00 Lac quintal of food grain shall be available in
the area. The above surplus food grain shall obviously generate a lot of
economic activities; mostly the marketing, transportation and agro industries
in the command area. The other benefits of the Yamuna water irrigation project
in Bharatpur District shall be in the form of increase in other agro associated
economic activities such as animal husbandry, household industries, dairy,
poultry etc.
Reclamation
of waste land
About 4788 hectares land in the command area is
waste land out of which 3067 hectares is under lift irrigation and 1721
hectares is under flow irrigation; Most of the waste land is in up lands, sandy
areas and with rock out crops. It is not advisable to bring these waste land
under cultivation, but it should be used for other purpose. They should be
suitably developed with tree plantation either by forest department or even by
planting trees by the individual land owners. The waste land having saline
effect may be got treated properly and may be developed as green areas by tree
plantation rather than looking barren and dry as of today.
Measures for mitigating
adverse environmental impacts related to Yamuna water irrigation project need
to be adopted. A brief discussion about them is presented here.
Submergence/acquisition of agriculture land: Submergence/acquisition of agriculture
land is unavoidable but may be kept as low as possible, consistent with the
project objectives and techno-economic analysis. Generally, it should be about
10 percent and under no circumstances above 25 percent of the extent of
benefited area. This will avoid conflict during land acquisition, resettlement
and rehabilitation process. In the present case land acquisition made be needed
only for canal alignment, which will be negligible, while by providing proper
drainage even water-logged areas can be reclaimed.
Rehabilitation: Farmers need to be persuaded to “Consent Award”
wherein they are given rightful compensation and/or given alternative land and
improved scale of facilities at new rehabilitation sites. In the Yamuna Water
Irrigation Project, Bharatpur no rehabilitation is required, because no village
is to be submerged or resettled.
Health Aspects: A number of aquatic bodies are prone to give rise
to water borne diseases like Malaria, Filariasis, Schistosomiasis, etc. Water
stagnation may be avoided and people discouraged to use infested water. The
environment management plan for malaria control is given in chapter xii
separately.
Vegetative menace: Vegetative menace like water hyacinth, bull rush or
Typha grass would be eradicated at the initial stages. Biological control
through certain type of fish and weevil feed on water hyacinth would be
explored. However, in the case of this project, not much vegetative menace is
to be created rather more plants to be added.
Siltation: Siltation in canals would be checked by proper
gradient for vigosity control. Suitable soil and water conservation measures
including tree plantation in catchment area helps in controlling erosion. The
tree plantation alone the canal is proposed to be undertaken for environmental
upgradation and check the erosion of canal.
Construction and environment: Some of the measures include giving
proper shape to borrows, filling of quarries with waste material, locality of
canals at appropriate alignment to allow minimum possible cut and fill, create
fishponds, tree plantation over and around spoil heap and along canal side,
etc. Thus, the proper canal alignment has to be taken avoiding adverse impacts.
Sanitation and sewage disposal: To avoid pollution of canal water,
provide proper sewage disposal (septic tank, biogas plant, etc.) as well as
waste disposal plants; because they pollute the water.
Energy requirement: Instead of mere regulatory provisions, provide
alternative sources like biogas plant, charcoal, kerosene, energy plantation,
etc. It will enable control and diversion of cow dung and vegetative waste from
fuel to use as manure.
Movement Facility: Construct bridges, siphons, culvert, etc., for
facilitating local movement of peoples, wild life, domestic animals, vehicles,
etc. to cross canals and drains.
Seepage from canal and rise of groundwater table: Seepage from canals, drains, etc., lead
to problems of water stagnation, creation of marshy land, salinity, sodicity,
rise in groundwater table etc. For this necessary advance planning and adoption
of appropriate measures need to be taken up. Some of the important measures
include lining of canals and water courses, proper operation and maintenance,
installation of suitable vertical, horizontal and/or biological drainage system
and adoption of efficient methods/systems of irrigation.
Change in Micro-climate: Irrigation network does change the micro-climate
which is generally advantageous but in some cases it may also be
disadvantageous. The humidity may rise and reduce the effect of aridity and
bring moderate conditions.
Agro-Industries: With the development of Yamuna water irrigation
project, different kinds of related agro-industries also simultaneously come up
which may create pollution problems and the same need to be controlled by
imposing suitable regulations and locating them at selected growth centres
having proper infrastructure.
Human induced environmental problems: Human induced environmental problems
could be:
·
Irrigation
on marginal lands.
·
Instead
of recommended cropping pattern, high water requiring/profit giving crops are
raised.
·
Inappropriate,
generally low, water rates.
·
Overall
low irrigation efficiency.
·
Lack
of equity, i.e., farmers of command area get higher income due to almost
negligible cost of irrigation as compared to farmers of well irrigated area and
those of dry land farming areas.
·
Rise
of water table including perched water table.
·
Water
logging, building up of nitrate and pesticide residue.
Heavy weed infestation.
The present work on ‘Geomorphology and Land use
Pattern and Its Impact on Agricultural Development. A Case Study of Bharatpur
District’ is a study of the applied geomorphology and land use pattern with the
special reference of Bharatpur District. It deals with the geomorphology of
this region and land use pattern system because land use is the surface
utilization of all developed and vacant land on a specific point at a given
time and space. It deals with the development of agricultural activities of the
region. Crop combination regions and their impact assessment on local and
surrounding environment have been analysed in this study. In this sequence
several factors have been taken under consideration in order to conduct a
crop-combination analysis of present agricultural activities and thereafter a
plan is being suggested for the sustainable development of this region. This
study not only helps in understanding the problems or benefits of cropping but
also provides significant and useful information about crop management and the
right way of doing cropping pattern. It also helps farmers for making new
strategies for the development of cropping area and for decreasing degradation
of land through proper methods of farming.