CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS In the industrial economic system of the west, nature has been seen simply as the provider of raw materials and an absorber of infinite wastes. This tradition of dominion and control is different from the tradition of other parts of the world. This study entitled "Environmental Issues in Agricultural development and the Role of Community Participation- A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh" has attempted to trace the history of agriculture in Himachal, study the status of soil, water and forests in the four agricultural zones of Himachal Pradesh and see the impacts on rural land utilization, cropping patterns and livestock raising. This work attempts also to study the demographic trends and socio-economic characteristics of the state through analysing the relevant information collected in a primary survey conducted in the agricultural zones of Himachal. Last the study attempts to study the history and present status of community participation in the state. Himachal Pradesh has four distinct agro-climatic zones based on altitude- submontane and low hills sub-tropical (up to 914 metres), mid hills sub humid ( metres), high hills temperate wet ( metres) and cold arid dry (2473 metres and above). Literature reveals that agriculture, livestock and forests are interrelated and livestock is dependent almost entirely on grazing in the state. Encroachments on marginal lands for cultivation and the resultant loosening of soil has been identified as another cause of ecological degradation. However it has also emerged from literature that there has been a decline in livestock numbers in the state during the last two decades. This has been brought about partially by the incentives to rear high-yielding animals such as improved buffaloes and cattle. Secondary sources reveal that the per capita agricultural and support land in Himachal Pradesh is 0.12 and 0.16 hectares respectively. Both the per capita agricultural land as well as support land are the least in zone I in the state as a result of high population density and extensive nature of cultivation and the most in zone III because of low density of population and better accessibility to common property resources.

2 CONCLUSIONS ~ Land resources of a place are not so much dependent on the extent of geographical area as on the extent of cadastrally surveyed area. The latter category of area delineates those different classification of the uses of land which readily appear on the records of village accountant or patwari. According to the data collected from the Directorate of Land Records in Shimla, of the geographical area of 5,567.3 thousand hectares, 2,934 thousand hectares in , thousand hectares in and thousand hectares in were cadastrally surveyed. The data reveals that the area under forests is increasing appreciably during over and again during over The area under barren and unculturable land and culturable wasteland declined during over This is a welcome development and reflects that the area lost to erosion and the area otherwise not utilized significantly has been reclaimed and/or been put to better land use. The land under the category miscellaneous tree crops has increased from 40,800 hectares in to 45,900 hectares in However the area under category net sown has also declined during over while the fallow land has increased. Looking at the zone wise land utilization scenario it emerges that in zone I, the highest proportion of area is under the category of net area sown, followed by land under barren and wastelands, land put to non-agricultural uses and area under permanent pastures. The area put to non-agricultural use has risen over the years. The permanent pastures are declining whereas the net area sown has remained more or less the same. The area under forests is negligible in this zone. In the surveyed Panchayats in zone II the proportion of area under pastures was the highest prior to 1985.The trend has changed later with the net sown area exceeding the area under pastures. Area under both categories net area sown and forests has increased while the land under category pasture lands shows a declining trend. In zone III, the proportion of area under permanent pastures is more than 50%. The proportion of area in the category of net area sown has remained a little less than 20% over the years and area in the category of forests has been a little above 15%. The scenario has remained the same over the years in the different categories of land-use due to the given topography. In zone IV the proportion of area under forests is negligible and has decreased over the years. The share

3 CONCLUSIONS 218 of land under pastures is significant and has increased further Corresponding to the period during which the percentage of land under pastures and non-agricultural uses increased, the land under barren and unculturable and the culturable wastelands.jec.,.,.e.o..sj The study also shows that in zone I and zone II the land holdings are predominantly marginal. In zone III there are a significant number of small and semimedium households though the maximum concentration of holdings remains in the category marginal. In zone IV fifteen households surveyed are marginal, an equal number are small and ten households are semi-medium that is owning land more than 2 hectares but less than 4 hectares. Annual compound growth rates calculated for over for cultivated crops show that area under fruits increased at the compound growth rate of 4.3% per annum whereas that under vegetables increased at the rate of 4.7% per annum in Himachal Pradesh. The trend in the state is thus significantly in favour of cultivating commercial crops. Evidences of cultivation of brocculi in Panchayat Maloh in zone II and tomato cultivation on an intensive scale in Panchayat Manubhabia in zone III were also found during primary survey indicating the changing pattern of agriculture from subsistence to commercial and the impact of extension activities. Coming to people's participation I quote Gunter Hilliges, 1 "We in the north quite often speak about global apartheid, where about 20 percent of the rich try to ensure their future against the survival interest of 80 percent of the majority. We have seen and learnt that these systems have no future. We hope that we will recognize this alarm clock when it comes to the question of global apartheid. I was happy that the first initiative in the South did not accept our headline "From Charity to Justice". They said we have never taken charity, so we fight to appeal for a headline "From Dependency to Justice". Hilliges, Gunter (1992). "Towns and Development-People's participation for change" in Towards Hope: An Ecological Approach to the Future, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, New Delhi.

4 CONCLUSIONS 219 The history of community participation in Himachal Pradesh is old. In trying to revive the tradition, a community based afforestation scheme was initiated in the state in , in which communities as well as NGO's are to play an important role in protection of the existing forest wealth and also participate in holistic rural development. The scheme is essentially an exercise in social engineering and would have long term implications in improving planning and management skills of the communities and staff. It would need to be monitored against milestones in developing the inherent authority of people's power and its effects on more equitable and sustainable use of natural resources in general and forest products in particular. The thrust of the scheme is in constituting Village Forest Development Societies. The VFDS are being constituted in the villages located in the periphery of the forests. The membership of the society comprises of atleast one adult male and one adult female member from every right holder family in the village and also a migratory grazier. Only a few VFDS have been constituted in the state so far but the programme if suitably implemented with the contributions of well-meaning NGOs is likely to go a long way. A VFDS had not been constituted so far in any of the sixteen panchayats surveyed in Himachal. Watershed management programmes are ongoing in three of the surveyed panchayats in zone I, two in zone II, two in zone III and three in zone IV. However the Village Development Committees formed evolved neither participatory mechanisms nor bottom-up systems for planning and management. The lack of representation and domination by the elite reduced the experiment to pro forma 'involvement' of the people. Some community participation efforts in Hatli in zone I, Maloh in zone II and Manubhabia in zone III were encouraging as the concentration was towards involving the maximum number of rural households. However very clear evidences of community participation emerged only from zone III where crop diversification is being brought about at a steady pace and also pasturelands are being improved and managed by the community. The first objective of the study was to study the status of natural resource base with respect to soil, water and forest cover. In Zone 1, the soils are somewhat excessively drained with rapid permeability. Soils in parts of the zone are not very good for cultivation purposes. These soils are good for plantation trees like kher and sheesham.

5 CONCLUSIONS 220 Forests of chir and khair dominate in the zone. The soils in one of the Panchayats Lower Andora are not very resistant to erosion. The water table is high in Rampur and Lower Andora whereas it is low in Dulehar and Hatli. In zone II, represented by Mandi district, the soils range from capability unit II to VII. Class VIII lands are suitable for recreation and wild life sanctuaries. The cultivable land in the surveyed Panchayats is mainly under capability class III e-1 and III e-2. The capability unit IIIe-1 comprises very deep, fine loamy, and fine silty soils occurring on moderately sloping terraced lands. Moderate erosion and high slopes are the dominant limitations. The capability unit IIIe-2 comprises deep, dark yellowish brown to yellowish brown, medium fine textured occurring on moderately sloping terraced lands. The soils occur on steep hillside slopes and suffer from moderate erosion. Forests of Kail, chir, deodar and fir are common in this zone. In zone III, the availability of organic carbon and phosphorus was high in the soils during 1997 whereas that of organic potash was medium. Erosion density of the soils varies from medium to severe. The cultivable lands have capability classes III e-1 and III e-2. Forests of kail, chir, deodar and ban are common in the zone. Status reports on this zone have shown that erosion varies from moderate to very severe. The intensity of erosion depends upon the density of forest, amount of leaf fall during summer, frequency of forest fires, pressure of grazing, site characteristics, depth of soil and intensity of rainfall. Areas where grazing is concentrated are areas of constant landslides and landslips. In zone IV the forest area is meager. The thin forests of Juniper and birch in the cold deserts have vanished with the growing demand for fuel-wood and timber. There is acute shortage of both these items. It strips the region even of its sparse vegetative cover. Agricultural land available in the region is meagre because of steep and rugged terrain. It is around 1-2 percent in dry temperate region and less than 1 percent in cold desert areas. Soil erosion is a major constraint. The factors responsible for it are steep gradient, neoglacial events, poor soil structure, clay rich ricks, widespread deposits of limestone and

6 CONCLUSIONS 221 lacustrine mud that flow when saturated. Deforestation, large-scale grazing by nomadic shepherds, road construction, mining and other development projects are the other anthropogenic factors. The combined effect of both has led to widespread surface erosion and soil mass movement. Evidently, while the water table has been declining in zone I and zone II in the district, the problem of soil erosion runs across all the four zones. The second objective of the study is to study the agricultural land use pattern as linked with the availability of arable land and water. It has emerged from this study that in all the four zones, soil type emerges as an important variable describing the extent of net area sown. In zones II and III, the availability of irrigation water also emerges as a significant variable explaining net sown area. In zone I, agriculture in two of the surveyed panchayats is primarily rainfed and hence the causes for less or more cropped area lie in timely rainfall rather than availability of irrigation water. Except in Panchayat Kafnoo in zone IV where there is sufficient rainfall during the agricultural seasons and agriculture is rainfed, irrigation applied or otherwise is essentially used in zone IV for cultivating crops. Hence, since soil type and availability of water are important determinants of the variation in the proportion of area under category net sown, it emerges from this work that agricultural land use pattern is directly linked with the arable land and water availability. The next objective of the study is to see the relationship between livestock pressure, pasturelands and cultivable land over a period of time. Strict supervision by the forest department and the availability of limited grazing area per livestock unit has led in an overall reduction in the number of livestock in all the four zones. In zone I, tlie grazing area in the Panchayats show a declining trend and the grazing area per livestock unit also declined as the number of livestock units increased from 1524 in 1982 to 1678 in 1992 and decreased marginally to stand at 1672 livestock units in The mean grazing area per livestock unit was very low at 0.14 in the Panchayats in 2000.

7 CONCLUSIONS 222 In zone II on the other hand the grazing area decreased from 1430 hectares in 1982 to 1297 hectares in 1992 and 1258 hectares in The number of livestock units decreased from 4769 in 1982 to 4639 in 1992 and 3930 in The mean grazing area per livestock unit decreased from 0.28 hectares per livestock unit in 1982 to 0.26 hectares per livestock unit in 1992 but increased to 0.29 hectares per livestock unit in The trend has changed towards keeping quality livestock and the livestock pressure has reduced. In zone III the number of livestock units increased from 2498 in 1982 to 3506 in 1992 but decreased to 3155 in The mean grazing area per livestock unit is 0.6 in 1982, 0.57 in 1992 and 0.61 in The grazing area decreased from 1862 hectares in 1982 to 1835 hectares in 1992 and 1821 hectares in While livestock pressure increased in 1992 it adjusted to the decline in grazing area in In the surveyed Panchayats in zone IV, taking aggregated data, the grazing land increased from 1100 hectares in 1982 to hectares in 1992 and decreased to 1033 hectares in The livestock units increased from 3224 in 1992 to 3364 in The mean grazing area per livestock unit was 0.36 hectare in 1982, 0.35 hectare in 1992 and 0.34 hectare in The livestock units increased from 3224 in 1992 to 3364 in The livestock pressure is increasing. Also land utilization trends for the zones reveal that the proportion of land in the category net area sown has not undergone any significant changes in any of the zones, thereby implying that there has not been an increase in grazing area at the expense of cultivable land nor has there been any significant loss in cultivable land at the expense of pasture lands. Also regression attempted taking net sown area as the dependent variable and livestock units as one of the independent variables shows that except in zone IV, livestock units are not a significant variable explaining the cause for the variation in the extent of net area sown. In zone IV, sheep and goat rearing is not always complementary to agriculture and often households with less fertile land resort to rearing more sheep and goats.

8 CONCLUSIONS 223 The fourth objective of the study is to see if rural out-migration has been caused by depletion of natural resource base and availability of arable land. Logistic regression results indicate that in zone I, caste, education and farm size explain the variation in outmigration, all of them showing direct relationship with migration. Migration in this zone it appears depends on the socio-economic status of the households. In zone II, the variation in outmigration is explained only by the number of years of education as it was the only variable that tested significant at 1% level of significance with a positive coefficient. In zone III, the result of logistic regression taking the variables caste, number of years of education of individuals, type of family, per capita arable land and per capita support land shows that both education and per capita arable land relate positively to outmigration and the results are significant for education at 1% level and for per capita arable land at 10% level. Alternatively in zone III, logistic regression was attempted using variables caste, education, farm size and type of family and the results indicated that variation in migration is explained by farm size and education. In zone III it was observed during primary survey, higher farm size and/or more arable land resulted in scientific management and better application of irrigation facilities as well as engagement of labour for harvesting and other agricultural operations. This results in better economic status which leads to migration. Per capita support land also has a positive coefficient in the results but it does not test significant. Logistic regression using per capita arable land and per capita support land as estimating variables was also attempted in the other three zones but the results were not significant. Hence it emerges from the study that the natural resource base does not have any direct implications on outmigration. The last objective of the study is to examine if better agricultural conditions and natural resource restoration have been achieved through people's participation. It appears from the case studies that as a general rule the benefits from extension activities have been cornered by a few and people's participation has implied participation but by a few rural households. It appears however that the ongoing attempts for awareness generation being undertaken by NGOs and State government together and the reservations for women and scheduled castes is having a positive impact. Political interventions however are a major deterring factor.

9 CONCLUSIONS 224 IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY The forest department considers trees to be the optimum land use for Himachal Pradesh's forest lands. The recent definition of 'forest land' uses the idea of an 'ecosystem' on the basis that forest land is not necessarily forested. According to forest department statistics in the state, of the 37,600 sq. km land legally classified as forest, only 12,500 sq. krn is actually forested (crown density of more than 10%) and 9,600 sq krn has dense forest? As much as 11,300 sq krn is actually incapable of supporting tree cover as it lies above the tree line at altitudes above 3,000 to 4,000 meters and is covered by alpine pastures or permanent snow. Much of the 'forest land' consists of 'undemarcated protected forest' and traditional village common lands acquired by the state in the mid -70s. Part of these are open grazing lands or pastures with heavy dependence. Thus pastures should be considered a correct use of this land in the hills and different management systems should be reflected in the prescriptions and norms in the Working Plans. It has emerged from this study that the decline in the number of livestock units in the state and the preference for quality livestock is the general scenario in the state. The potential in zone II and zone III needs to be tapped further for improved dairy practices. Appropriate measures need to be taken in zone I to tackle the problem of increasing livestock pressure. Training programmes and demonstrations for improved stall feeding practices will go a long way to reduce the dependence on the scarce support land in this zone. Extension and line activities are widespread in the zone, however community participation is lacking. Discussions in the zone revealed that in a few areas village forest development societies have been operating successfully. Such efforts need to be extended to other parts of zone I. Evidences of community participation in zone III are encouraging. Extension activities should be specifically targeted in this zone to bring about development at a steady pace. 2 Bhatia, A. (ed.) Participatory Forest Management: Implications for Policy and Human Resources Development in the Hindukush Himalayas, Volume 4, India. Kathmandu: ICIMOD