AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

MANURES

Small pressure of population on agricultural land, comparatively high fertility of soil and various other measures of cultivation including the use of compost and farm-yard manure about seventy years before did help in making the agricultural produce surplus. However, with the passage of time the very high rate of growth of population emphasised the necessity of producing- food articles on a larger scale. The agriculture being the most important source of livelihood, various measures including the use of improved strains of crops, fertilisers, etc., assumed great importance in the context. The application of fertilisers and manures which helps in conserving the fertility of the soil and results in increasing agricultural production has, therefore, become an essential feature of the present day agronomy. Cultivators do recognise the advantage of manures and fertilisers but find it very difficult to make use of them due to certain difficulties. A large number of cultivators do not get credit facilities because of their small holdings. Sometimes the fertilisers are not supplied in time. Another and more important difficulty is also fell about the application of manures and fertilisers and that is, that if the rainfall, upon which the agronomy of the district still depends to a large extent, happens to be poor, the manures actually injure the crop for that year causing it to wither.

In the old days, only the wealthier cultivators who could afford to maintain large number of cattle were able to get enough manure from the dung of cattle. The chemical fertilisers were not known to small cultivators in the countryside. The manure was then stored in a pit, from three to five feet deep in one of their fields, sometimes by the side of their houses or just on the outskirt of the village. Now the cultivators are being taught to do the same in a scientific way. The manure, according to the new method is stored in a pit of the size of 10' x 6' x3'. The pit is covered with mud and is cleared off in every hot season. Sometimes Dhanagars who own a large number of goats are paid in cash and kind for penning their goats at night on the fields.

It was alter the introduction of Planning era in our country that the distribution of fertilisers assumed importance. Since then, it has been considered as an important indicator of agricultural progress. The fertilisers are usually distributed through co-operative societies.

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