Water Users Association and Irrigation Management - Institute for ...

Table 4.12: Distribution of Farmers by Size of Holdings and Location in
Hagedal
Size of the No. of sample Head Middle Tail
holdings (in acres) farmers
Small 22 7 3 12
(Below 3) (31.9) (31.8) (13.6) (54.5)
Medium 17 5 8 4
(3 to 6) (24.6) (29.4) (47.1) (23.5)
Large 30 I I 6 13
(Above 6) (43.5) (36.7) (20.0) (43.3)
Total 69 23 17 29
. .
Note. FIgures In parenthesIS IndIcate percentage .
In HagedaL as seen from the Table 4.12 small fanners constitute around 32 percent of the
sample. But a majority (around 55 percent) are located in the tail reach. The same is the
case with large fanners where around 43 percent are tail enders. On the other hand, medium
fanners accounting for 24.6 percent of the sample are concentrated in the middle reach
(47.1 percent).
Land fragmentation is such that the holdings of 55 percent of fanners in Gundur and 46
percent of fanners in Hagedal are confined to one plot. In both the villages, the majority of
the sample fanners are large fanners. The data clearly indicate that small, medium and
large fanners in both villages are more or less spread across the locations although there are
no small fanners in the head reach in Gundur. But it is interesting to note that large fanners
are concentrated in the tail reaches in both the villages. Will this make a difference in the
availability of water to the tail-end areas') While analyzing water distribution, this dynamics
will become clearer.
Agricultural season in the study area
Agricultural season in the study area is closely related to the release of water from the
TLBC and the rainfall pattern.
Mungaaru (Kharij) (July to November): This is the first season of the agricultural year
and sowing starts soon aHer the first showers. Late maturing, super fine High Yielding
Variety (HYV) of paddy known as 'sona mussorie' is grown during this period due to a
greater availability of water from both the canal and rainfall. This variety IS In great
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