OTHER DEPARTMENTS

THE AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT

Organisation.

THE CHARGE OF THE AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES OF THE SATARA DISTRICT rests with the District Agricultural Officer (Maharashtra Agricultural Service, Class II). He works directly under the supervision of the Superintending Agricultural Officer, Poona Division, Poona, who is in charge of the six districts of the State. The Superintending Agricultural Officer is working under the direct control of the Director of Agriculture, who is assisted by four Joint Directors, one for establishment, second for extension, third for agricultural engineering and the fourth for research and education. The Superintending Agricultural Officer is the administrative head of the Division, who controls the activities of the District Agricultural Officer. But in addition to him the State level specialists guide the District Agricultural Officer in specialised matters. They are as under:-

There are six branches in the office of the Superintending Agricultural Officer, and the heads of these sections, namely, establishment, accounts, technical, research and education, agricultural engineering, statistics, crop protection, crop competition, guide the District Agricultural Officer, in respective subjects. The Superintendent of establishment branch looks after the establishment matters, and the Assistant Accounts Officer looks after accounts matters. The Personal Assistant to the Superintending Agricultural Officer, Deputy Director of Agriculture (Engineering), Deputy Director of Agriculture (Research and Education), the Assistant Statistician, the Crop Protection Officer and the Crop Competition Officer, are responsible to guide the District Agricultural Officer in their respective spheres in agricultural extension work.

The District Agricultural Officer is assisted by the Assistant District Agricultural Officer, in office work and by two Agricultural Officers, appointed for Taluka Seed Multiplication Farm and Kharif and Rabi Campaigns, respectively. Similarly he is assisted by the District staff of one Agricultural Officer and one Agricultural Supervisor in charge of the paddy pilot scheme and the Division, respectively who are being assisted by the Agricultural Assistants under different schemes. With the introduction of community development and pre-extension blocks in the district, the staff of the Agricultural Department is withdrawn from seven talukas and hence there are only eighteen Agricultural Assistants working for general agricultural extension work in the rest of the four talukas. Similarly the staff of twelve Agricultural Assistants is provided under the Paddy Pilot Scheme, who are working under one Agricultural Officer, Paddy Pilot Scheme, six Agricultural Assistants under Jowar Pilot Scheme and two Agricultural Assistants under Oil-seeds Scheme. Thus in all thirty-eight Agricultural Assistants are working in the district for agricultural extension work of general and special nature.

In the community development and pre-extension block the work of agricultural extension is entrusted with the Block Development Officer who is being assisted by the Extension Officer (Agricultural) at block level and Gramsevaks at village level. There are in all eight blocks of community development pattern and two pre-extension blocks sanctioned in seven talukas and ten extension officers (Agricultural) guide the Gramsevaks whose number is about ninety. In community development and pre-extension areas the Gramsevaks are expected to devote mainly to the agricultural extension work. They work under the Block Development Officers and the District Agricultural Officer. In other areas the Agricultural Assistants carry out agricultural extension work under the supervision of the Agricultural Supervisors.

Soil Conservation.

The work of soil conservation is undertaken in the district, since 1st September 1955 and the items like contour bunding, strip cropping, dry farming, etc., are undertaken. Five Agricultural Supervisors and twenty-six Agricultural Assistants assist the Sub-Divisional Soil Conservation Officer in contour bunding work.

In the district, whole of Man taluka, eastern parts of Khandala and Khatav talukas and southern part of Phaltan taluka which receive north-eastern rains are partially scarcity stricken areas where soil conservation measures need to be taken. The contour bunding and dry farming work is undertaken in Man and Khatav talukas to start with and will be extended to Khandala peta. The work of contour bunding is so far done in respect of 29,528 acres of land under Land Improvement Act, 1942.

The work of carrying out the dry farming plots is also undertaken by the Sub-Divisional Soil Conservation Officer, who is assisted by fourteen Agricultural Assistants. The scheme started in the year 1958 and upto 1960-61, 1,197 dry farming plots have been taken in 207 villages of the district.

Mechanical cultivation.

A unit of four bulldozers was provided for the district for levelling of lands. The unit works under the Sub-Divisional Soil Conservation Officer, Satara. The bulldozing work is generally undertaken in compact blocks with 500 hours of work in each block. The machine works for ten hours a day. The target for each machine for the year is fixed at 750 hours and the machines usually work for 5-6 months only from January to June, after the kharif crops are harvested and the lands are ready for work. The work done by the unit so far is 11,433 hours.

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