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AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION |
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AGRICULTURAL POPULATION.
AGRICULTURE HAS BEEN THE MAIN SOURCE OF LIVELIHOOD OF THE PEOPLE is THE DISTRICT. The owner cultivators and the agricultural labourers form the two important classes of the agricultural population. The large majority of the population, however, has to pursue one of the subsidiary occupations to supplement the income from land. The agricultural labour also has to seek employment in the industrial sector as there is very little scope for assured employment in agriculture. Unless the agronomy of the district is taken out from the ambit of the subsistence farming and organised by introducing the improved and scientific methods of cultivation on a large scale on a long term basis keeping in view the commercial, side too, the land in the district will scarcely be able to maintain the agricultural population which is increasing at geometrical progression.
The 1961 census revealed that the "net increase in rural population of the district has been 88.94 per cent over that of 1901 and 106.01 per cent over that of 1921. The rates of variation in rural population have never followed any trend. The urban population had grown faster at the expense of rural population. As a result, the rural population increased at a lower rate than the total population. The percentage of rural population gradually decreased both for the district and the State from 1911. In 1961 it has shown an opposite trend, mostly due to declassification of 21 towns, whose population is now included in the rural population of the district". [District Census Handbook, Sangli, 1961, p. 13.]
The rates of variation in rural population and the percentages of rural population to total population of the district since 1901 are as follows:—
Year |
Rate of variation in rural population |
Percentage of rural population to total population |
1901 |
-- |
85.26 |
1911 |
-4.72 |
85.48 |
1921 |
-3.74 |
84.54 |
1931 |
+ 16.91 |
83.29 |
1941 |
+ 14.36 |
82.90 |
1951 |
+5.59 |
71.26 |
1961 |
+ 45.93 |
84.36 |
The density of rural population is the highest in Walwa taluka (677 persons per sq. mile) as the lands in the taluka are the richest and yield the best garden and dry crops. The Jath taluka on the other hand has the lowest density of population (159 persons per sq. mile) mainly due to the poorest lands.
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