Poverty in Hamirpur

"Dalit, Harijan, SC & ST". If you are regularly updated for news, you know thease words. The people, whose conditions are miserable are poors.

Agriculture is nothing but a livelihood practicesby this backward groups.

Most “Harijans” have poor quality land, in which only coarse cereals can be grown. production will be very low If there is inadequate rainfall in June, around sowing time, and again in September.

So, many people give away their lands to bigger farmers on lease, Balkat, or Batiya

and migrate to other places for livelihood.

 Produces from self cultivated land meets minimum food needs of families for two to six months only. The “Harijans” also depend on the forest to meet their food requirements. for instance collecting Mahuwa (A kind of juicy yellow flower) and plums.

Liquor brewed from mahua sell for the money and  flowers are often the main meal in cold winter days. Mahuwa and situwa is preferred by old hamirpurites.

 For four to eight months of a year, most adult members of families migrate to nearby areas or other states to find work. Those that stay back work as a Bonded Labor of Thakurs and Large Farmers.

With the money they earn, “Harijans” buy wheat, but generally families cannot afford to buy all the wheat they require; hence they mix kodo, a coarse cereal they grow, for making chappatis. 

If they require Emergency cash they needs to contact with local money lenders who charge 5% to 25% interest per month. Some Chit-Fund"s spreading their legs within the poors.

families collected forest produce like mahua, tendu leaves, chironji and amla. While some of the produce, especially mahua, is stored for home consumption, most of it is sold to middlemen at very low rates. June to September, families worked on their own lands; those who owned no land, or rocky patches, migrated to find work. In October, people migrated to get wages for harvesting paddy; some migrated to find other kind of work.

November to January was the most difficult time; no agricultural labor work is available then. Except for those who had been lucky to save some money from wage earnings, families either migrated to seek non-agricultural labor, or borrowed from moneylenders. By a horribly cruel irony, November to January is the 'festival' time of extravagant expenditure and consumption of rich foods for middle class India.

Agriculture in Hamirpur | Suicides | Survival Practices by marginalized groups | Hamirpur Agricultural Profits | Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

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Hamirpur Agricultural Profits

The Agriculture of Hamirpur imparting the lower profits to the national revenue . And there are no any efforts from government side to increase the total productivity.All the farmers in Hamirpur are essentially engaged in subsistence farming, which is highly Dependant on a rainfall.

Since the 1990s, profitability of agriculture has been affected seriously by rising costs used in cultivation like the coste of fertilizers, seeds, diesel,and this is not possible in lower economical Hamirpur.

Mustard was also grown. The yield per bigha was 10 kg. The minimum support price for this commodity that year was Rs 1600 a quintal. Hence, per bigha income from mustard can be assumed to be Rs 160. There was also income from sale of husk - around Rs 250 per bigha. Hence total income per bigha would have been around Rs 3866.

Assuming that households sell off the entire produce from land .Yearly input costs per bigha were as follows:

Fertilisers (1 bag diammonium phosphate + 1 bag urea)     = Rs 1070.00

Seeds (25 kg)                                                                               = Rs 275.00

Rent of diesel engine for pumping up tubewell water           = Rs 400.00

Diesel cost @ Rs 25 litres and use of 25 litres                        = Rs 625.00

Labour cost (ploughing + cutting + threshing)                       = Rs 800.00

Thus the total input costs for a year is Rs 3170 and the net profit per bigha would have been Rs 756. The majority of Hamirpur farmers have less than 10 bighas, and cultivate only in one season; so annual family income from agriculture, for the majority of farmers, in a well-irrigated area, in a year of good monsoon, at assured procurement prices, and assuming there were no disturbances such as a heat wave before harvesting, would have been only Rs 6000-Rs 10,000, taking into account other variables like quality of soil and use of unpaid household labor.

The majority of households with small land area have to depend on additional income by working in the field of large farmers, at road and other government or non-government construction sites. Some households would earn additional income through the sale of milk, goat, eggs or chicken When adequate such opportunities of earnings are not available in and around the village for the households, migration will be held.

The marginalized groups like scheduled tribes have poor agriculture productivity.

Agriculture in Hamirpur | Suicides | Survival Practices by marginalized groups | Hamirpur Agricultural Profits | Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

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Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

As God gifted us good quality of soil. per the data of District-wise crop production statistics 2002-03 data Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Hamirpur districts produced a total of around 2310 tons while the yielding is 3027 kg/hectare. And total annual production of gram in 2002-03 was over 970 tones, while gram is showing  an decrease in average agricultural output per hectare in last some years. The region also accounts for highest production of tur/arhar and masoor. Banda and Hamirpur are the state's top producers of jowar (around 980 tons /year)

However, Hamirpur rank nil in the production of rice.

Except some kinds of grains like Gram, San and Kodo. Yields have increased in Hamirpur over the past few decades, mainly due to increased area under irrigation and comparatively higher use of fertilizers.

However, Hamirpur remains a low agriculture productivity in comprising with Jalaun zone Yield of wheat and pulses and rice are in better condition in Jalaun. However, Hamirpur rank nil in the production  of Rice (see tables).   

Agriculture in Hamirpur | Suicides | Survival Practices by marginalized groups | Hamirpur Agricultural Profits | Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

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Agriculture in Hamirpur

Hamirpur's economy is mostly based on agriculture. District is situated in a Plain sub-region of Yamuna and Betwa, so over 70% of total area is used for cultivation.

According to India’s census figure, 70 per cent of Hamirpur's working population is engaged in agriculture.

Though yields are low due to irrigation facilities were not sufficient.Farmers depended mainly on rain water for irrigation.some other factors that affect the agricultural productivity.

1-Some factors, like weather, are out of the control of the farmer.Unusual rain patterns, such as drought, a long or nil rainy season, early or late frosts, and other factors, can ruin crops and bring agricultural productivity down. The capacity of a given land is also an important factor. Soil cannot be forced to produce beyond capacity, although farmers are using fertilizers so that it can support.

2 -Castles (Anna System) is a another concern.Now a days People are using tractors for cultivation and all other activities of harvesting thus there is no use of bulls in the field while in the past. Hamirpur's agriculture was depends on the labor of bulls.so the cow and there family steed free which decreases the productivity.Main Crop Categories are -

The Rabi crops are grown between the months mid November to April. Rabi crops require irrigation.Examples of Rabi Crops: Wheat, Gram, Pea, Mustard, Linseed, Barley.
Kharif crops are usually sown with the beginning of the first rains in July.Common kharif crops are-Millet, Maize (corn), Mung bean (green gram), Urad bean (black gram), Pea, Peanut (groundnut)

In 2012, the National Crime Records Bureau of India reported about the farmer suicides in Hamirpur and Banda. Reasons for farmer suicides, such as monsoon failure, high debt burdens, genetically modified crops, government policies and public mental health.

Agriculture in Hamirpur | Suicides | Survival Practices by marginalized groups | Hamirpur Agricultural Profits | Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

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Suicides

From past some years we regularly getting some frequent reports of farmers committing suicide in Hamirpur and its surroundings. But no systematic efforts were done either by the government or by non-government organizations to find out the root cause and abolish  it. What we have are only press reports of specific cases when a person dies. 

Some of the suicide cases from the district, reported in newspapers and magazines, were as follows:

Case 1- Chandu alias Tulsidas, 55, of Kasba Sarila, Hamirpur district, had around 12 acres of land, which supported a family of 17 members, including three married sons and their wives and children. However, illness, and the drought, led to diminishing earnings from the land, forcing Chandu to taken loans from moneylenders. Some tractor dealer agents approached him and sold him the idea of taking a bank loan for a tractor, to increase income. As an incentive, the agents offered some cash upfront, whereby Chandu could pay some instalments of old debts. Chandu fell for the offer, but in the drought situation, the tractor brought in no income, and Chandu's total debt burden stood at Rs 8 lakhs.

As he was unable to repay any of this money, some moneylenders took possession of part of his land. Chandu approached his relatives for help, but nobody could help him. On May 8, 2007, after meeting some relatives in a nearby village, he killed himself by jumping into a well. 

Case 2- Kumhau pur village in Lalpura Zone, A farmer named Rajaram Nishad, 55, S/o Badanga has died by hang on a babool tree.His son named Anoop said that his father had two acre of cultivated land in which he cultivated Grass which was completly ruin due to untimely rain.

Both of the examples shows hunger or poverty-related deaths. Rather, they indicate gullibility. They also indicate high degree of desperation in a land where there appears little opportunity for quickly increasing one's income through legal means.

The figure of Banda district is highly abnormal.Banda district's Census 2001 population figure of 15.37 lakhs, one can expect around 30 to 40 suicides a year in the district. The figure quoted by Dainik Jagran implied that in 2004, the number of suicides in Banda was over ten times the 'norm'.

Agriculture in Hamirpur | Suicides | Survival Practices by marginalized groups | Hamirpur Agricultural Profits | Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

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Irrigation Facilities in Hamirpur

Irrigation of agricultural crop through the Rivers, Dams, Canals and government and non government tubewels.

The rain is uncertain. Precipitation of rain is not throughout the year, it occures only 4 months from June to September while District such as Hamirpur, 64% of cultivated land is dependent on monsoons.
Only 30% of the agriculture area is comes under the irrigated land.

In Hamirpur there is 508  Government Tube wells and 1013 Private Tube wells . 13265 hectare of land irrigated through the govt tube wells while private tube wells provide irrigation for 9660 hectare of land. There are 3097 ponds in the district in which 927 are in Madaha, 498 are in Rath and 682 are in Sarila.

Since the 1990s tube wells have emerged as a major source of irrigation in Hamirpur. Tanks, ponds and wells, were the main resources for irrigation in  during British rule, when dams and canals were built.

A surface irrigation system of around 6800 km of canals, built during British rule, accounts for most of irrigation in the Jalaun, Banda and Hamirpur plains, covering over 300,000 hectares.


However, due to poor maintenance, the canal system built during British rule is out of use.

In 1910, a dam was built across the Dhasan at Lachura, from it irrigates the Hamirpur plain.

Some Dames and canals in Hamirpur which used for irrigation purpose.

1-Dhasan Canal-This canal is origins from the Lahchura dam and Rath is irrigated by it.

2-Arjun Dam Canal-This canal is rises from Arjun Dam and is a good source for the irrigation in Maudaha and Hamirpur.

3-Swami Dayanad Dam-This dam is located at the Gohand block of Hamirpur District over  the barma river.

4-Kabrai Dam Canal-this canal is passed out through the dam of Chandrawal river near Kabrai (Mahoba).

Four other pump canals are used for irrigation 
Patyora pump canal
Bilauta pump Canal
Chhani pump 

The first major project taken up after Independence was the multipurpose Matatila Dam across the Betwa, 23 km from Lalitpur town. With a  length of 6.30 km, height of 33.53 meters and lake area of 20.720 sq km, it is meant to generate power, provide drinking water to many district including Hamirpur.

Source: State-wise abstract of information from village schedule in Minor Irrigation Census 2000-2001. 

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