AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

CEREALS

The Kolaba district grows a variety of cereals on 3,99,571 acres. of land. The important ones are rice (bhat). ragi (uagli or nachani), vari and kodra (harik). Other varieties are grown only on a small scale.

Bhat.

The district is known as a granary of rice. Thus, out of a little over ten lakh tons of out-turn of rice in the State, a sixth part is shared by the Kolaba district. The following table shows acreage under and out-turn of rice, in the district, since 1945-46:-

TABLE No. 37

ACREAGE AND OUT-TURN OF RICE IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1945-46 TO 1955-56).

In 1958-59, the crop covered 3,27,711 acres, of which sweet lands accounted for 2,64,635 acres and khar lands, for 63,076 acres, which. means that of the total acreage under paddy, four-fifths is occupied by sweet lands, and the rest, by khar lands. Alibag, Panvel, Mangaon, Mahad, Roha and Karjat talukas are important producers of rice and make up nearly seventy per cent of the total area occupied by the crop in the district. The following table gives taluka-wise acreage under rice, in the district, in 1958-59:—

TABLE No. 38

AREA UNDER RICE (TALUKA-WISE) IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1958-59).

As a consequence of the Government policy of the reclamation of Khar lands, more acreage will be brought under cultivation of paddy in course of time. The out-turn of rice falls into twenty-four varieties belonging to two broad categories, red and white. Red rice is an inferior quality grown in low-lying salt lands near creeks which are liable to be flooded by spring tides. White rice is a superior quality grown in lands beyond the reach of salt waters. Of the sixteen varieties of white rice, seven known as early (halve) varieties ripen about mid-October and nine varieties known as late (garvi) a month later. The seven early (halve) varieties are panvel, pandre, nirpunj, mahadi, avchite, kachcri, and nadkalam and the nine late (gavri) ones are patni, bodkat, kothimbri, tamdisal, jirasal, kolamb and kinjal. The remaining eight varieties of rice include manjarvel, harkhel, ratal, malkudai, vailechi, morchuka, kilanz and bhadas. The improved varieties of paddy grown in the district include the early EK-70 of a medium coarse quality, the mid-late bhadas-1303 of a coarse quality, the mid-late K-540 of a fine quality and finally the late K-42 of a fine quality. Of these, the first matures in 110 to 115 days; the second, in 120 to 125 days; the third, in 132 to 135 days: and the last, in 145 to 150 days. In salt lands, the seed is germinated and then broadcast. This method is locally known as rahu. In sweet lands, the crop is transplanted. Most of the farmers are found to adopt the method of transplantation, as major portion of the area under paddy is occupied by sweet lands. A detailed description of the method of paddy cultivation is given in the preceding pages. The cost of cultivation of paddy is about Rs. 150 per acre, as shown below:—

TABLE No. 39

COST OF CULTIVATION OF PADDY PER ACRE (1958).

The average yield per acre of land is about fifteen Bengali maunds of paddy worth Rs. 225 and a thousand bundles of paddy straw worth Rs. 40 which, therefore, leaves the cultivator a net margin of Rs. 113 per acre of paddy cultivation. If, however, the Japanese method is pursued, the net return will be higher, although at the initial stage, it may cause an apparent increase in expenditure. The cultivation of paddy by the new method involves an expenditure of Rs. 310 per acre which amounts to a little more than thrice that incurred in the age-old method of cultivation. The average yield per acre of land then is about thirty Bengali maunds of paddy worth Rs. 450 and two thousand bundles of paddy straw worth Rs. 80. The net margin to the cultivator works out to Rs. 220 per acre of land, which is almost twice that under the old method. This has resulted in the Government making an intensive propaganda in favour of the Japanese method of paddy cultivation. A pilot scheme has been launched in the Panvel block of the district from 1957-58, whereby the required fertilisers and crop finance are made available to cultivators in time through co-operative societies. Recently, cultivators have begun to realise the importance of the new method and some of them have already taken up to it, although the pace of progress in this direction appears to be very slow. A poor response from cultivators in spite of all Government efforts to encourage intensive method of cultivation owes, in all probability, to the fact that the cultivators are only groping in the dark as a result of illiteracy and have developed a strong lethargy to come out of the strangle-hold on their minds of the indigenous method since times immemorial.

Nagli.

Nagli or nachani (ragi) is important both as food and fodder crop and is raised in varkas lands and on billy slopes of almost all talukas in the district, but more particularly in Roha, Mangaon, Mahad, Poladpur, Karjat, Mhasla and Shriwardhan. The crop occupies nearly 50,000 acres and yields an out-turn of about 15.000 tons annually. The following table gives acreage under and out-turn of ragi, in the district, since 1945-46: —

TABLE No. 40

AREA AND OUT-TURN OF RAGI IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1945-46 TO 1955-56).

The ripe grain is used for preparing bread and nachani flour, in making a cooling drink called ambil. The crop is only next to paddy and occupied 44,608 acres in 1958-59. The following table gives taluka-wise acreage under ragi, in the district during the same year:—

TABLE No. 41

ACREAGE UNDER RAGI (TALUKA-WISE) IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1958-59).

In hilly tracts, land is allowed to remain uncultivated for a number of years depending upon the kind of soil. On hill slopes, soil is cleared of brushwood which, with other available rubbish such as cow-dung, grass, etc., is burnt to serve as manure. Seeds are sown after the surface is smoothened and sufficiently wetted under rains. In a month's time, seedlings are broadcast on the ploughed soil. The crop does not require any special care till it is ready for harvest. Harvesting is done in October by plucking earheads which are then threshed under bullocks' feet and the seeds are separated. As the stalks of the crop are hard, reaping is comparatively difficult and costly. Usually, it takes four persons about eight days to reap the crop in three acres of cultivation. The average yield of the crop varies from ten to twelve Bengali maunds worth from Rs, 170 to a little over Rs. 200 as against the cost which varies from sixty to seventy rupees. The crop is thus as profitable as paddy.

Vari

Vari holds the third place in the tillage of cereals and is taken on varkas or hilly lands after nagli or nachani, especially in Roha, Mangaon, Mahad, Sudhagad and Mhasla sub-divisions. The following table gives acreage under vari, in the district, since 1950-51:—

TABLE No. 42

AREA UNDER VARI IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1950-51 TO 1955-56).

It covered 23,839 acres of land in 1958-59. The following table shows taluka-wise acreage occupied by the crop, in the district, in 1958-59:—

TABLE No. 43

AREA UNDER VARI (TALUKA-WISE) IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1958-59)

Vari is a hill millet and entirely a kharif crop in the sense that it is never irrigated. It is a poor food crop and a worthless fodder. It is cooked like rice and sometimes ground into flour and made into bread and largely demanded by the poorer classes. Its straw is inferior and used for burning the land as a rab material. It is raised like nagli or nachani from seedlings and the cultivation of both the crops is very much alike, with the exception that no brushwood is burnt on the steeper slopes, as the soil retains enough of manure imported from the burns of the nagli or nachani crop taken in the previous year. Thus, seed-bed is Tabb-ed as in paddy and nagli or nachani. While seedlings are growing, the field is ploughed three or four times during the first three weeks of rains. About one pound of seed per guntha is broadcast on the seed-bed and from five to seven gunthas of seed-bed can furnish seedlings sufficient for an acre. Transplantation is done with the same care and provision as in the case of rice and nagli or nachani. Vari is not manured directly, since the residual effect of the manure applied to the previous crop is sufficient. The crop is hand-weeded once in August. If transplanted in July, it ripens about October-November. The grain is dehusked by pounding. The average yield of the crop is about seven Bengali maunds per acre worth a hundred rupees which is roughly double the cost incurred for its cultivation per acre. Thus, the crop gives a poor margin to cultivators as compared with rice and nagli or nachani.

Harik.

Harik (kodra) grows either on flat land or on steep slopes of hills and is raised in Mangaon, Mahad, Roha, Poladpur, Mhasla and Shriwardhan talukas. The following table gives acreage and out-turn of the crop in the district since 1945-46:—

TABLE No. 44

AREA AND OUT-TURN OF KODRA IN KOLABA DISTRICT (1945-46 TO 1955-56).

The crop covered 3,392 acres, in 1958-59. Mangaon and Mhasla sub-divisions partake of about seventy per cent of the area occupied by the crop in the district. The following table shows the taluka-wise distribution of Kodra, in the district, in 1958-59:—

TABLE No. 45

AREA UNDER KODRA (TALUKA-WISE) (1958-59).

Harik follows vari and does not require the soil to have brush-wood burnt on it. To obtain best results, the land which is mostly varkas or hill land, is ploughed four times after the first rainfall and seed is broadcast at a rate of fifteen to twenty pounds per acre and covered thereafter. The crop is sown in July. It is once weeded by hand and harvested by the end of October. It is cut close to the ground with a sickle and tied into bundles of sheaf size, exposed to the sun for a week and is then stacked. It is threshed under the feet of bullocks. As the newly harvested grains possess narcotic properties, the latter are neutralised in a mixture of cow-dung and water before the former are ground. Kodra is eaten by the poorer classes only, who prefer it in various ways and from repeated use are able to consume it with impunity. The average yield of the crop works out to about four Bengali maunds worth Rs. 55 as against the cost of Rs. 35 to Rs. 30 per acre of cultivation. Thus, the crop earns a low income to the cultivator.

TOP