AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

CO-OPERATIVE FARMING

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economic system. With the rural folk agriculture is not merely a source of livelihood but also a way of life. Hence the agrarian economy contemplated under the plans aims at enabling the agriculturist to stand on his own feet. But factors like increasing pressure of population on land, inequitable distribution of land, uneconomic size of the holdings, evil of acute sub-division and fragmentation of land, low productivity of the soil, traditional methods of cultivation, illiteracy of the farmers, meagre financial resources of the cultivators and such other obstacles prove to be stumbling blocks in the way of implementation of the plans for a progressive agricultural economy. The achievement of sufficiency in agricultural production and rural prosperity in the face of these handicaps is a formidable task and hence deserves to be approached in a spirit of cautious experimentation.

In this context co-operation was felt to be the only way to overcome, at least partially, all these obstacles thereby ameliorating the condition of the agriculturists. Co-operative farming implies pooling together of small plots of land and their joint management. One of the greatest advantages of co-operative farming is that the size of the unit of cultivation can be readily increased, deriving at the same time all the benefits accruing out of large scale farming. For instance the farmer would be able to strengthen the source of credit, purchase and use costly modern machinery and farm implements, effect efficient division of labour, provide irrigation, undertake measures for permanent development of land and finally to sell his produce advantageously, which otherwise would be beyond the capacity of an ordinary individual farmer. The cultivator derives these benefits by becoming a member of the co-operative farming society without losing his individuality, initiative and ownership.

Considering these obvious advantages the question of developing co-operative farming in the State was given serious consideration in the post-independence period and a special officer was appointed to investigate and suggest among others the suitability of adopting co-operative, collective, joint or better farming societies and further suggest model schemes for each type of society. On receiving the report, government sanctioned a special comprehensive scheme on 16th May 1949 indicating therein the main types of farming societies and the scale on which financial assistance would be available in the form of (a) loans at low rate of interest and subsidy for land improvement, (b) contribution to the share capital, (c) subsidy for meeting managerial expenses for a certain period,

(d) subsidy for meeting cost of seed and manure for the first three years,

(e) concession in the form of remission of land revenue on private lands pooled together for co-operative joint farming and concession of grant of government waste land wherever possible on long lease or on permanent occupancy basis.

Co-operation in the field of farming was ushered in the district in 1958-59 with the establishment of a joint co-operative farming society at Sahur. By 1964-65 there were 17 Joint Farming Co-operative Societies and two Collective Farming Societies with a total membership of 242 and a share capital of Rs. 64,700. Government contribution to the share capital amounted to Rs. 44,700. Reserve and other funds stood at Rs. 18,599 during the same year. Together, these societies commanded an area of 1927.35 acres of which 22.88 acres were irrigated. In 1964-65 the value of agricultural produce raised stood at Rs. 222,808. Of the total number of societies, 13 made a net profit of Rs. 38,018 while three incurred a loss to the tune of Rs. 2,726. Two of the remaining three just managed to balance the expenditure and income while one had just been registered. A Co-operative Farming Societies Federation has been set up to supervise their activities.

Until 1964-65 the societies received financial assistance from government as shown below.

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