October - December 2012 - National Institute of Rural Development

484 Nitin TagadeThe carrying capacity of agriculturallands is another indicator employed tomeasure sustainable food availability acrossregions. It signifies the capacity of agriculturallands to support the population dependenton it for earning their livelihood. 15 Since thepopulation has been growing steadily and theland being a scarce resource, the land topopulation ratio will increase over time in theagriculture based economy and thereby,pressure on the carrying capacity ofagricultural lands. Further, the pressureexerted on land could increase due to variousreasons such as increasing population ordiversion of land to non-agricultural purposes.The excess burden on the carrying capacityof land could be reduced either through thetransformation of agriculture based economyto one of non-agriculture based economy orby employing modern inputs and techniquesand increasing irrigation facilities. Theincreasing density of agricultural workers onland may lead to inadequate access to foodavailability and become a hurdle in the pathof ensuring stable access to adequate food.The carrying capacity of cultivable landcan be assessed by looking at the changes inthe share of cultivated land and changes inthe proportion of workforce dependent onagriculture for their livelihood. Therefore,what is attempted here is an assessment ofthe pressure being exerted on the cultivableland due to the increase in populationdependent on agriculture for their livelihood.Towards this end, we have estimated densityof rural population and agricultural workersper hectare as also a percentage change inthe share of cultivators and agriculturallabourers (Tables 9 and 10). The density ofrural population is increasing over yearsduring 1961-2001 and is substantially higherthan that of agriculture in the State as awhole. In the Coastal region, both density ofrural population and agricultural workforceper hectare are higher than in other regionswith the former increasing over time from9.82 in 1961 to 27.93 in 2001, while the latterdeclining gradually from 1.74 in 1961 to 0.56in 1991, but increasing again to 2.10 by 2001.The density of rural population per hectare isdetermined by various factors such as the sizeof population, in/out-migration and theproportion of land under cultivation. Incontrast, density of agricultural population perhectare depends on employmentopportunities in non-agricultural sector andin/out-migration.In the Coastal region, the reason forhigher as well as increasing density of ruralpopulation could be attributed to higher shareof population and a lower proportion of landunder cultivation. However, the decline indensity of agricultural workforce could bedue to improving non-agricultural activitiesand rural to urban migration. The density ofrural population and agricultural workforceare lowest in the Inland Central regionbecause the proportion of land undercultivation is relatively high. In the InlandCentral region, share of NSA to Total GrossArea (TGA) in the TE 1965-66 is found to be73 per cent, while increased to 107 per centin the TE 2005-06; and similarly share of GCAto TGA is about 78 and 121 per cent,respectively, during the same period (Table4). Over the years 1961 to 1991, the share ofworkforce in agriculture sectors in most ofthe regions is found to have declined withthe Inland Northern region being anexception (Table 10). The highest decline isobserved for the Coastal region, followed bythe Inland Western and Inland Easternregions, whereas, the lowest decline is seenin Inland Central and Eastern regions. Thehighest decline in the Coastal region couldbe due to a lower share of land undercultivation. It is interesting to note that theproportion of workforce dependent on theagricultural sector increased during 1981-91in two regions viz., Coastal and InlandJournal of Rural Development, Vol. 31, No. 4, October - December : 2012