Resource Use Efficiency in a Dry Farming Area of Banda District of Uttar Pradesh

The green revolution as visible in part of the country has generated confidence for the attainment of self-sufficiency on the food front in the very near future. With the introduction of High-Yieling Varieties Programme not only the productivity per acre but also the productivity per unit of time could substantially be raised through adherence to multiple cropping programme. However, the most limiting factor which stands in the way of the exploitation of this opportunity on a wider scale is the non-availability of assured irrigation facilities. About 75 percent of the total cropped area int he country is rain-fed. Also there exists diversity in the magnitude of rain fall from one area to another. This necessitates that proper attention should be given for examining the resouce use efficiency of farmers in rain fed areas. Even in rain-fed areas rainfall distribution is uneven. This requires a study of the agro-economic factors responsible for the poor performance of agriculture in such rain-fed areas for corrective Government measures to ameliorate the farming conditions and to sustain the agricultural growth. This study is an attempt in this direction withs pecial reference to the Banda district of the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. The specific objectives of the study are (i) to study the cropping patter in the region; and (ii) to estimate the input-output relationship and the resource productivity and to examine the resource use efficiency in the area.