scholarly journals Extent of technological change in rice cultivation over four decades in West Bengal, India

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 6) ◽  
pp. 281-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Chatterjee ◽  
S. Gupta

Rice is a principal food crop which occupies nearly a one-fourth of the gross irrigated area in India. However, the present study attempts to judge the essence of the Green Revolution in rice cultivation and its actual reflection regarding the factor contribution over four decades in West Bengal, India. The study measures the extent of technological change in rice cultivation using the Divisia-Tornqvist Theil index model for computing the total factor productivity (TFP) of rice for the state of West Bengal. Subsequently, the spatial change in the TFP as well as a comparative study on productivity, input use, break-up of cost components and economic return in the paddy cultivation over different size classes across all agro-climatic zones of West Bengal has been made in order to identify the most promising zone regarding technological advancement in rice cultivation. The study reveals that technological change in rice cultivation has occurred in the state of West Bengal for the entire four decades while its extent has not been equally disseminated in decades. The effect of the productivity change was robust in the 2<sup>nd</sup> decade (1981&ndash;1982 to 1991&ndash;1992) with a 4.19% TFP growth rate indicating that the good effect of the Green Revolution has began to start regarding the technological change in rice cultivation over West Bengal. On the other hand, the TFP<sub>rice</sub> results in the state have given a dismal picture in the later phases under study where it starts declining with the change of time. At the end decade (2001&ndash;2002 to 2009&ndash;2010), the TFP growth has been found to be negative (&ndash;0.69) reflecting ill effects of a higher use of inorganic fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides to corrupt the soil fertility status of the state. It is the quality HYV seed that dominates among all factor contributors for the overall TFP<sub>rice</sub> change along with the human labour use. Farm mechanization enters after the 90s indicating a major reform in the context of the technology adoption by the rice growers in the state. The region-wise scenario of rice cultivation in the state has proved that the Gangetic Alluvial tract has been the better technology adopter with higher TFP indices as compared to the problematic regions like the Red Lateratic zone and the Coastal Saline belt, the reason of which might be the improved fertility status of soil with a large number of progressive paddy growers operating in terms of a better knowledge gaining, a better education and extension. &nbsp; &nbsp;

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 180-190
Author(s):  
Rajkumar Bind

This paper examines the development of modern vaccination programme of Cooch Behar state, a district of West Bengal of India during the nineteenth century. The study has critically analysed the modern vaccination system, which was the only preventive method against various diseases like small pox, cholera but due to neglect, superstation and religious obstacles the people of Cooch Behar state were not interested about modern vaccination. It also examines the sex wise and castes wise vaccinators of the state during the study period. The study will help us to growing conciseness about modern vaccination among the peoples of Cooch Behar district.   


Focaal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 (54) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Projit Bihari Mukharji

The reflections in this article were instigated by the repeated and brutal clashes since 2007 between peasants and the state government’s militias—both official and unofficial—over the issue of industrialization. A communist government engaging peasants violently in order to acquire and transfer their lands to big business houses to set up capitalist enterprises seemed dramatically ironic. De- spite the presence of many immediate causes for the conflict, subtle long-term change to the nature of communist politics in the state was also responsible for the present situation. This article identifies two trends that, though significant, are by themselves not enough to explain what is happening in West Bengal today. First, the growth of a culture of governance where the Communist Party actively seeks to manage rather than politicize social conflicts; second, the recasting of radical political subjectivity as a matter of identity rather than an instigation for critical self-reflection and self-transformation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-209
Author(s):  
Sudipta Biswas ◽  
Sukumar Pal

Tribal communities in India are most deprived. Socio-economically, they are poor and marginalised. The root cause of socio-economic marginalisation can be attributed to alienation of tribal people from their land, territory and resources. The overall situation of the tribal population of West Bengal is not better than the national average, even more deprived than the tribal population of other states. Despite progressive land reform laws and political commitment to implement such laws, issues of tribal land rights have not been addressed adequately. There is no such exclusive study to understand the situation of tribal land rights in the state of West Bengal. This article analyses the status of tribal land rights in the state context and makes some suggestions for improving the situation. It is found that despite distribution of land titles, a large section of the tribal population remains landless. A sizable portion has not received received record-of-rights. Claims of many tribal people for forest patta remain pending or stand rejected. Tribal land alienation continues to be a matter of concern. The state has not taken any concrete steps for the restoration of unlawfully alienated tribal lands. A large section of the tribal sharecroppers in the state remain unrecorded.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moumita Palmajumder ◽  
Susanta Chaudhuri ◽  
Vikas K. Das ◽  
Sisir K. Nag

AbstractThe present work aimed to evaluate the overall hydro-geological status of Indpur block, Bankura district, West Bengal, India. Despite of having adequate annual precipitation, south-western districts of the state of West Bengal, India, are considered to be a significantly water-stressed area of the state. This is because of unfavorable geological setting near to subsurface occurrence of impervious lithology and inundated nature of surface drainage pattern. The study was carried out both in pre- and post-monsoon seasons of 2019 to obtain an updated current status on concentration and spatiotemporal fluctuations of controlling ions of the subsurface water. Estimation of major physicochemical parameters and specific qualitative chemical characterization of groundwater were rated through field and laboratory studies. Water samples were collected from twenty-two equidistantly scattered tube wells in the block. Seasonal variations of water table elevation heads and subsurface shift of predominant recharge zones of the block were also demarked. Drinking, domestic and irrigation suitability of the block water were measured by the estimation of parameters such as Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Magnesium Adsorption Ratio (MAR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Permeability Index (PI), Total Hardness (TH) and Kelly’s ratio (KR) and piper trilinear plots. Sustainable non-availability of groundwater seems to be the major problem of the studied area, which intern resulted in overexploitation, mostly for cultivation practices causing considerable depletion of its suitability as drinking and irrigation. Further, results show that suitability of the water both for domestic and irrigation of the studied area may be termed as ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ with a few exceptions on a local scale. Judging by every parameter, it can be stated that groundwater of Indpur block is not much suitable for drinking purposes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 1792-1815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joko Mariyono

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the productivity of rice production by decomposing the growth of total factor productivity (TFP) into four components: technological change, scale effects, technical and allocative efficiencies.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed an econometric approach to decompose TFP growth into four components: technological change, technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and scale effect. Unbalanced panel data used in this study were surveyed in 1994, 2004 and 2014 from 360 rice farming operations. The model used the stochastic frontier transcendental logarithm production technology to estimate the technology parameters.FindingsThe results indicate that the primary sources of TFP growth were technological change and allocative efficiency effects. The contribution of technical efficiency was low because it grew sluggishly.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has several shortcomings, such as very lowR2and the insignificant elasticity of labour presented in the findings. Another limitation is the limited time period panel covering long interval, which resulted in unbalanced data.Practical implicationsThe government should improve productivity growth by allocating more areas for rice production, which enhances the scale and efficiency effects and adjusting the use of capital and material inputs. Extension services should be strengthened to provide farmers with training on improved agronomic technologies. This action will enhance technical efficiency performance and lead to technological progress.Social implicationsAs Indonesian population is still growing at a significant rate and the fact that rice is the primary staple food for Indonesian people, the productivity of rice production should increase continually to ensure social security at a national level.Originality/valueThe productivity growth is decomposed into four components using the transcendental logarithm production technology based on farm-level data. The measure has not been conducted previously in Indonesia, even in rice-producing countries.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Proma Ray Chaudhury

Abstract Operating within the androcentric premises that support idealized models of populist leadership, self-representations cultivated by female populist leaders often involve precarious balancing acts, compelling them to appropriate contextualized traditionalist discourses and modes of power to qualify for conventional leadership models. This article engages with the stylistic performance of populist leadership by Mamata Banerjee of the All India Trinamool Congress in the state of West Bengal, India, focusing on her adoption of the discursive mode of political asceticism, nativist rhetoric, and religious iconography. Through an interpretive analysis of selected party documents, autobiography, and semistructured interviews with Banerjee's followers and critics, the article delineates Banerjee's populist self-fashioning as a political ascetic and explores perceptions of her leadership. The article argues that while the self-makings of female populist leaders remain fraught and contested, they contribute substantially toward redrawing the boundaries of both conventional leadership models and the broader political landscapes they inhabit.


Author(s):  
Sumouli Roy

West Bengal is a maritime state in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent with a coastal area of 10,158.22 sq. km. The coastal region consists of the Digha coast, which is noted for its tourism and fish landing activities. We highlight in this paper, a load of nitrate and phosphate during premonsoon in the aquatic phase of Digha for more than three decades (1984 – 2020) to observe the trend of these two variables, which are important components of sewage. A uniform increase in the concentrations of the nutrients is observed except in the years 2009 and 2020. A sudden peak observed for both the nutrients during 2009 may be attributed to Aila, a super cyclone that hit coastal West Bengal on 25th May 2009. The dip in the levels of nutrients during 2020, may be the effect of the COVID lockdown phase in the state during which all the tourism and fish landing activities were completely paralyzed.


Irriga ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 679-696
Author(s):  
Ricardo Benetti Rosso ◽  
Marcia Xavier Peiter ◽  
Adroaldo Dias Robaina ◽  
Rogério Ricalde Torres ◽  
Jardel Henrique Kirchner

USO DE CAMALHÕES DE BASE LARGA PARA A VIABILIZAÇÃO DO CULTIVO DE SOJA EM TERRAS BAIXAS     RICARDO BENETTI ROSSO1; MARCIA XAVIER PEITER2; ADROALDO DIAS ROBAINA3; ROGÉRIO RICALDE TORRES4 E JARDEL HENRIQUE KIRCHNER5   1Eng. Agrônomo, Doutor, Professor do Instituto Federal Catarinense, Campus Concórdia, SC, Brasil, CEP: 89703-720, [email protected]. 2Eng. Agrônoma, Doutora, Professora Associada do Departamento de Engenharia Rural, UFSM, Santa Maria, RS, Brasil, CEP: 97195-000, [email protected]. 3Eng. Agrônomo, Doutor, Professor Titular do Departamento de Engenharia Rural, UFSM, Santa Maria, RS, Brasil, CEP: 97195-000, [email protected]. 4Eng. Agrônomo, Doutor, Professor do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul, Vacaria, RS, Brasil, CEP: 95219-899, [email protected] 5Eng. Agrônomo, Doutor, Professor do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul, Ibirubá, RS, Brasil, CEP: 98200-000, [email protected].     1 RESUMO   O estado do Rio Grande do Sul possui extensas áreas de terras baixas que são predominantemente ocupadas pela orizicultura que nos últimos anos vem enfrentando sérios problemas. A alternativa encontrada foi o cultivo de soja nestas áreas. Porém, estas áreas apresentam restrições físicas do solo, como por exemplo a má drenagem, que acarreta na elevação do nível freático próximo a superfície. Neste sentido, foi realizado um estudo com objetivo de avaliar a utilização de técnicas de drenagem, para viabilizar o cultivo de soja, através do rebaixamento do nível freático. Estas técnicas de drenagem são compostas pelos camalhões de base larga de 22,5; 15 e 7,5 m e a drenagem superficial. Como parâmetros de avaliação da eficiência no rebaixamento do nível freático foram utilizados os índices SEW30 SCmod e IDS, e também a produtividade e os componentes de produção da soja. Os resultados, demonstraram a eficiência do camalhão de base larga no rebaixamento do nível freático em comparação a drenagem superficial.  Assim recomenda-se a utilização de camalhões de base larga de 7,5 e 15 m para o cultivo de soja em terras baixas.   Palavras chave; drenagem, SEW30, nível freático, várzea.   ROSSO R. B.; PEITER M. X.; ROBAINA A. D.; TORRES R.R.; KIRCHNER J. H. USE OF BROAD BED FURROW FOR FEASIBILITY OF SOYBEAN CULTIVATION IN LOWLANDS     2 ABSTRACT   The state of Rio Grande do Sul has extensive lowland areas predominantly occupied by rice cultivation, which in recent years has been experiencing serious problems. The alternative found was to implement soybean cultivation in these areas. However, they present physical soil restrictions, such as poor drainage, which leads to elevation of the water table near the surface. In this sense, a study was carried out with the objective of evaluating the use of drainage techniques to enable soybean cultivation by lowering the water table. The drainage techniques were composed of a broad bed ridge of 22.5, 15 and 7.5 meters and surface drainage. SEW30, SCmod and IDS indices, as well the productivity and components of soybean production, were used as parameters for the evaluation of efficiency in lowering the water table. Among the broad bed ridges, 7.5 m wide and 15 m wide base were the most successful in the two harvests. Thus, the use of 7.5 and 15 m wide broad bed for cultivation of soybeans in lowlands is recommended.   Keywords: drainage, SEW30, water table, lowland.


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