AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

AGRICULTURAL POPULATION

AGRICULTURE IS STILL THE MAINSTAY OF LIVELIHOOD FOR THE  PEOPLE IN THE DISTRICT. About 82.08 per cent of the total working population in the district is dependent on land as against the average of 69.91 per cent in Maharashtra and 69.62 per cent in India. In 1901 the total population of the district was 574,323 while in 1961 it increased to 1,238,070. This increase in population has its effect on the economy of the district which is mainly agriculture oriented. Consequently there is a heavy pressure on land. Now, it can be said that the agricultural economy of the district in the absence of mechanized cultivation, has more or less reached its last lap of the period of abundance. And if it is to become a profitable affair, in addition to the usual requirement of food from it, the only possibility of achieving this objective is the maximum utilization of ample natural resources found in the country-side to support the agricultural industry and the mechanised way of cultivation.

By 1901, the people in the district had not to face any shortage in food. But since then there was a considerable growth in the population. During the last six decades ending 1961 the net percentage increase in the population in the district was 115.57 as against 103.97 for Maharashtra. The rates of variation in the tahsils however vary between 13.42 per cent (for Warora tahsil) and 20.14 per cent (for Chandrapur tahsil). If the population is divided between rural and the urban, the percentage of rural population to total population as it stood in the decade ending 1961 was 92.27 as against 7.73 percentage for urban population in the district. This again shows how Chandrapur district is least urbanised. Thus the major portion of the population is stationed in the rural area only where agriculture alone is the mainstay of livelihood.

A comparative study of the table given below also shows how the number of persons who are dependent on agriculture and on subsidiary occupations related to it has increased considerably during the last decade of 1961. In 1951, the total number of persons who derived their secondary means of livelihood from land was 233,646 (males 60,037, females 173,609) while the same increased to 587,073 (males 282,621, females 304,452) in 1961. It is also interesting to note that the number of female workers dependent on land in 1951 as well as in 1961, is more than that of male workers.

TABLE No. 1

AGRICULTURAL POPULATION IN CHANDRAPUR DISTRICT IN 1951 AND 1961.

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