Land inequality and agricultural sustainability in uttar pradesh, india: a regional analysis

By using agricultural census input survey data 2010-11and Gini coefficient, the land inequality was calculated. Agricultural sustainability also evaluated using indicators approach of four economic regions, namely, eastern, western, Bundelkhand, and western. Further, the degree of agricultural sustainability among the operational landholdings also calculated. The calculated agricultural sustainability indices for different economic region show that farmers in Bundelkhand region were highly sustainable, whereas farmers in western region were least sustainable. In Bundelkhand region, farmers have opted sustainable management practices by utilizing of agricultural resources, viz., agricultural machinery, credit, livestock, biological insect-pest management, and sustainable use of seeds, to develop a sustainable agricultural production system, where each and every resource was efficiently utilized. In other words, these resource-poor farmers have adopted the farming system in such a way that their total returns should be maximized from the available resources. The present study suggests that there is a need of micro-level policy interventions for the reduction of chemical fertilizer use. The excess of chemical fertilisers not only deteriorating soil health, but also causes long-chronical diseases such as cancer. Therefore, judicious use of chemical fertilisers has a win-win situation. This not only reduces the input cost, but also beneficial to soil and human health. Further, continuously increasing population and fragmentation in the land are two major reasons for inequality among the operational landholdings. This can be dealt through community participation. The present study also found that high yielding regions are least sustainable such as western region. Therefore, the present study suggests that judicious of common property resources, including land and water, the degree of sustainability would be an increase in Uttar Pradesh.