TRIBALS AND MODERN AGRICULTURE: Dynamics of Fertiliser Use in Madhya Pradesh

The new strategy of economic development has laid great emphasis on land augmenting technological changes in agriculture and also identifying the factors that determine the process of agricultural technological changes.

Over the years, in Indian agriculture, synergetic use of irrigation, seeds and fertiliser has been the strategy of enhancing agricultural yield. Of these, the use of fertilisers has increased tremendously during the last fifty years—from just 0.1 million tonne to 17 million tonnes. But, this growth has mainly been confined to irrigated areas only. The non-irrigated areas, particularly in the tribal regions, have not contributed much to his.

The book is diagnostic in nature and focuses on economic forces affecting the cultivators’ adoption and diffusion process of fertiliser use and analysis of dynamics of fertiliser use in southwestern tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh. Analysing growth in fertiliser use at micro level, the book tries to understand why fertilisers in the remote tribal areas are being used so inefficiently. In the process, the study documents experiences of farmers who were unable to use fertilisers on all crops, were infrequent users and used fertilisers continuously at about 40 per cent of its potential. Understanding fertiliser use this way assumes significance for, it recognises that it is farm condition rather the farmer’s condition that constrains technology transfer in difficult areas like remote tribal areas.

D.C. Sah, an agricultural economist, is Professor and Director at M.P. Institute of Social Science Research, Ujjain. His research interests have focused on economic-sociological aspects of equity and ecology in sustainable common resource management, agricultural development problems and policies, second-generation problems of development displacement and chronic poverty. He has published several books and articles in these areas.