AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS

IN KOLHAPUR DISTRICT, THE FIELD TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS used by some agriculturists are modern but the old indigenous ones are in use in large numbers. Ploughs, harrows, levellers, clod crushers, wooden plants, seed-drills, markers, hoes (both entire blade and slit type) and stone rollers are the main implements used during the various phases of cultivation. Besides these, several hand tools are also used for sundry jobs on the farm. Iron ploughs, both heavy and small are, however, replacing wooden ploughs. Tractor drawn ploughs and disc harrows are in use in the district on an appreciable scale, especially in sugarcane growing areas. Electric motors are now in use for running water pumps along the Bhogawati valley and the Panchaganga valley. Oil engines are set up to work the water pumps in the district. In the interior, in a few undeveloped areas, mots are still in use for lifting water.

The following table shows talukaswise distribution of agricultural implements in Kolhapur district in 1956:-

TABLE No. 27.

 AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND IMPLEMENTS IN KOLHAPUR DISTRICT (TALUKAWISE), 1956.

continued.

Ploughs.

Till the beginning of this century, indigenous ploughs made of babul wood were in common use in the former Kolhapur State. The Agricultural Department of the State made successful efforts in introducing and making popular the iron ploughs. Iron ploughs, both big and small, are now in use throughout the district.

The wooden plough (nangar or, when small, nangri) consists of several pieces, the principal of them being (1) Khod (body); (2) dandi (beam or pole); (3) ju or jokhad (yoke); (4) phal (share); and (5) ruman (stilt). Only the share is made of iron, all other parts being made of wood. The body is of two parts, the doke (head) and the dant (shoe), all of one piece of wood and curved in shape. The head is thicker, and the shoe tapers to a point. The shoe is flat at the top in front and triangular at the bottom. The share (the iron part) is flat and sharp at the end; it is laid on the shoe, and secured to the main block by a phalcamb (small piece of wood). The front end of the. share projects about six inches beyond the point six of the shoe, and is secured to the shoe by means of an iron ring (vasu). The beam is highly curved at its back and is fixed to the head (doke) so as to form an acute angle. The back end of the beam is projected about three inches beyond the head on which the handle (rumane) rests. The yoke is fixed to the front end of the beam. The handle (stilt) is separate, and on the top of it is fixed a muthya (short grip) to facilitate handling. A leather rope (vethan) passes back from the yoke behind the stilt and forward again to the yoke.

The indigenous plough opens a triangular furrow. The heavy type which weighs about 120 lbs. is yoked to four pairs of bullocks and furrows to a depth of six to eight inches, while the light one weighs about 60 lbs. and is yoked to two pairs of bullocks and furrows to a depth of about four inches. The heavier ploughs are replaced by iron ploughs and only the lighter types are used in garden lands. The very light plough, weighing about 15 to 20 lbs. is used in the Konkan tract of this district and is yoked to a pair of bullocks and furrows to a depth of about two inches.

Iron ploughs are supplied in the district by two Indian manufacturers who have got their factories in North and South Satara. There are two types of iron ploughs (i) those having reversible mould board which can be changed from one side to another and (ii) the fixed ones, just like an indigenous wooden plough. The ridgers are the heavier types and are in common use in sugarcane growing areas in the district for earthing up sugarcane crop.

Wooden ploughs are usually manufactured and repaired by the village carpenter. Iron ploughs are also repaired locally in workshops and at times by replacing spare parts.

Tractor ploughs are also in use now-a-days in the district, especially in sugarcane growing areas. Tractors are owned by big cultivators and when idle these are hired out to other cultivators. The rate charged varies from Rs, 20 to Rs. 25 per acre, depending upon the type of ploughing.

Seed Drills.

Seed-drills (pabhar) are implements made mostly of babul wood for the sowing of seeds in lines in a field at uniform depth. The furrows in which the seed is deposited are opened by coulters (phan). Three or six coulters are fixed to a small log of wood called dind (head-piece). Just above the tip of the front flat surface of the coulter a hole is bored through to fix a hollow bamboo tube (nali) for allowing the seed to pass through into the soil. Now-a-days, instead of hollow bamboo tubes, tubes of corrugated iron sheets are generally in use. All the tubes from the coulters are brought together and held in a bow-like wooden structure (chade) and tied firmly at the centre of the head-piece with a thin rope (chade dor) to ensure uniform distribution of seed in all the tubes. For traction, a beam is fixed to the centre of the head-piece with side braces on its sides for support. On the top of the head-piece, a handle (rumane) is fixed for guiding and pressing the implement. A yoke of proper length, according to the number of coulters and distance between them, is attached to the beam for yoking bullocks and is tied to the beam by a thick rope passing over and round the head-piece, making the whole frame rigid for work. This kind of seed-drill requires one man to drive a pair of bullocks and another person to feed the seed bowl uniformly with the seed to be sown. Three to four acres of land can be sown per day. Seed-drills are light or heavy according to the season and the crops to be sown. During the kharif season, the seed is to be deposited in the wet and soft soil up to a depth of two or three inches. This requires a lighter seed-drill. In the rabi season, the seeds are to be deposited to a depth of five or six inches where only sufficient moisture for the germination of seed is available. The seed-drills used for this are generally very heavy and strong. In the rabi season, rabi jowar, gram and wheat are sown by these seed-drills, and pulses, such as field peas, gram etc. are sown in a furrow behind a plough.

Water Lifts.

For lifting water from wells as well as from rivers for the purposes of irrigating the fields, centrifugal pumps, run on oil engines and a few on electric motors are mostly in use. Mots are in use in the interior and undeveolped areas and that too at a few places only. Iron mots are mostly in use; leather mots are used rarely. Iron mots are manufactured locally; leather mots are manufactured by the village cobbler. Oil engines in use are both of foreign as well as local makes. The latter are manufactured at Kolhapur and Ichalkaranji.

Harrow.

The harrow (kulav) is used after ploughing for crushing the clods of earth. The parts of the harrow are: head piece (dind) prongs (janoli);. blade (phas); beam (dandi) and handle (rumane). Except for the blade, which is made of iron, all parts are made of babul wood. The head-piece is straight and rectangular in cross section. In the front, two prongs are fixed into it, in a slanting direction downwards at an angle of 50° with the pole. The blade, made of iron, is straight, fairly long and thick. Its two ends are turned upwards to fit in prongs where they are firmly held by means of iron rings (vasu). The pole is straight and is fixed slightly on the left of the centre of the head-piece. It is supplemented by a short brace which is fixed on the right of the centre. The other end of the brace rests on the pole.

In Kolhapur district, two types of harrows are commonly used (i) phasa, a light one and (ii) kulav, a heavy one. Kulav is used for interculturing tobacco and chilly crops. Phasa is used for covering seeds. The harrow weighs about 25 to 30 lbs. and works to a depth of about two or three inches and requires one man and two bullocks. In a day, generally two acres of land are covered. The light harrow (phasa) weighs about 40 lbs. and works to a depth of about two inches and requires a man and two bullocks. In a day about four acres of land are covered. These harrows are constructed by village carpenters and are used in a variety of ways, for example, mixing manure, preparing seed-beds, covering seeds, levelling of land and even interculturing.

Beam Harrow.

The beam harrow (maind) is used for breaking the clod of earth after ploughing. The maind is a rectangular log of babul wood about 10 ft. long, one foot broad and about nine or ten inches thick and weighs about 150 or 200 lbs. A wooden beam is fixed to the log in the centre for applying force by a yoke to be attached to it. Two iron rings are fixed to the log, one on each side of the beam, for tying ropes for applying equal force to the end of the log.

Hoes.

In Kolhapur district, two types of hoes (kolapa and duba) are in use for interculturing jowar, groundnut, chillies and other food crops. The slit hoe is known as kolapa and the entire blade hoe is called duba. Hoes are really miniature harrows and are used to work in between the lines of crops to stir the soil so as to remove the weeds, loosen the soil, conserve moisture and aerate the soil. It is used only till the crop is about 12" to 15" in height. The size of kolapa depends upon the distance between the crop lines. The prongs and half the portion of the blade are made into one piece and two such pieces, fixed on the head-piece, have a slit which is about three inches wide. In case of duba the entire iron blade is fixed to the prongs. Generally, two or three hoes are worked on one voke. The hoes are tied to the voke by a piece of rope passing over the handle and the head-piece of the hoe. The, yokes used are long and straight in proportion to the number of spaces covered and the distance between them. The reins, by which the bullocks are controlled, are tied to a "Y" shaped stick. This implement requires careful handling, especially when the crop is young. Two or three men with a pair of bullocks interculture about four or five acres of land a day. At many places, especially in rice lands, kolpa is worked by human labour only. It is drawn by a man and a woman. The woman pulls the hoe by means of a rope tied to her forehead (which is covered with cloth). The man presses and regulates (holds between the crops) the hoe from behind. A set of two or three hoes are worked like this by a team of three or four persons. The Department of Agriculture has introduced some improved types of hoes, namely Planet Junior hand hoes and shovel cultivators, for working in wide-spaced crops like chillies, tobacco, sugarcane etc. In addition td these, with the introduction of Japanese Method of Paddy Cultivation and also the dibbling method, the Karjat hand and rotary hoes and Japanese hand hoes have been introduced and become very popular with paddy cultivators in the district.

Stone Roller.

A stone roller, instead of bullocks, is usually used for threshing jowar ear-heads. The roller is about three feet in length; its diameter varies at both the ends. On one side, it is about one and half or two feet and on the other side it is one or one and half feet. The end with smaller diameter is kept inside so that it turns automatically. A pair of bullocks can easily operate it.

Bullock Cart,

The bullock cart (gadi) is the common means of transportation in carrying out agricultural operations. The present cart consists of a large frame of babul wood supported on two big wheels held together by an axle. The wheels have iron tyres. These carts are drawn by a pair of bullocks.

In recent years, this means of transport has undergone several improvements. Introduction of ball bearing arrangements has helped in reducing friction and giving easy movement to the wheels. Pneumatic rubber tyres in place of iron ones are available, but in actual practice the cultivators find them very costly and their use is, therefore, restricted to a few rich farmers and contractors.

Miscellaneous.

Besides the tools worked with the help of bullocks, there are a few tools which are utilised in various other agricultural operations and are worked by hand. These are:-axe (kurhad); pick axe (kudali); spade (phavada); marker (tikatane or yedtang); weeding hook (khurpe); sickle (vila); billhook (koyata); crowbar (aidan or pahar); and rake (dantale). These are mostly made by the village carpenter or blacksmith.

As no animal-driven implement for harvesting, has been devised, the principal tool is the sickle (vila) with entire cutting edge. It is used in harvesting the crops by cutting the stems. The pick axe (kudali) is used for digging up and harvesting various root crops. The spade (phavada) is useful for repairing and making bunds, water channels and filling the fields with soil and manures. The marker (tikatane) is useful in making the field before sowing seed or transplanting seedlings at a regular distance varying from one foot to three feet. The weeding hook (khurpe) and a sickle (vila) are possessed by each working member of the cultivator's family. The bill-hook, (koyata) and the axe (kurhad) are important implements for purposes of cutting and chopping trees and wood. The crowbar (aidan) is usually used on the farm for lifting clods or stones, digging holes and other allied operations. Threshing is generally done in the case of paddy by bullocks, unaided by any appliance. For winnowing, bamboo basket (bootti) is used. The man stands at a height and gradually drops the grains from the basket so that the husk is blown away. In some places artificial wind is produced by using a winnowing fan designed by the Department of Agriculture. It is just like an electric fan being worked by hand by means of gears driven by a cycle chain.

Sugarcane is usually crushed by power crushers. Iron mills operated by bullocks are seen at a few places. For the preparation of gul, sugarcane juice is boiled in open pans made of iron. The pan is about two feet and three inches deep and about eight feet eight inches in diameter and has a capacity of 240 gallons of sugarcane juice. The moulds for preparing gul blocks are made of galvanised iron sheets. Besides these two implements, various small implements such as scumstrainer etc. are also required in the manufacture of gul.

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