"Sunshine
is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating;
there is no such thing as bad weather just different kinds of good
weather."
-- John
Ruskin
Lucknow district is situated in the central region of Uttar Pradesh. Its geographical area is 2544 sq. kms. Which is 0.86 per cent of the State. It is situated in between 26.3 and 27.1 North latitude and 80.13 and 81.13 east longitude and 125 meter above the mean sea level. The district of Barabanki in North--East, Unnao surrounds it and Hardoi in North-West, Sitapur is North and Raibarely in South-East.
The major river of the district is Gomti, which flows from West to East. Its tributaries are Behta, Loni Kukrail, Reth, Akrawadi and Jhiling. The district consists of three sub-divisions (tehsils), Malihabad, Kakori, and Mohanlalganj and eight blocks viz. Malihabad, Mal, Bakhshi-ka-Talab, Kakori, Chinhat, Sarojini Nagar, Gosaiganj and Mohanlalganj. There are 843 revenue villages, 97 nyay panchyats and in addition to Municipal Corporation of Lucknow there are seven town areas Malihabad, Kakori, Mahona, Etaunja, Nagram, Amethi and Gosaiganj.
The
district of Lucknow represents Gangetic Plains of Uttar Pradesh physiographically
and falls under the 6th Agro-Climatic Zone that is, Central Zone, also
known as mid plain zone.
According to
1991 census, the total population of the district is 27,62,801, of which
10,31,580 (37.3%) lives in rural area. The population of scheduled castes
and scheduled tribe is 21.84 per cent. The population density is 331 per
sq. km. The sex ratio is 866.
The percentage of literacy in the district of Lucknow is 57.5 as per the census of 1991. The literacy rate among female is below 50 per cent while it is 66.5 per cent in case of male. There is a significant difference between rural and urban literacy. The rural literacy is almost half (35.2%) of the urban literacy (70.1%).
The literacy rate is very low (19%) in case of rural female in comparison to urban female (46.9%).
The percentage of major workforce to that of total population is 28.7. The percentage of agricultural workers and agricultural labourers to total population is 11.0 and 2.5, respectively. Of the total workforce, nearly 60 per cent is engaged in off-farm activities.
The district of Lucknow has a reported area of 2,51,926 ha, out of which only 55.89 per cent is net sown area and 82.22 per cent is total sown area. Of the total, 5.5 per cent is under forest, 4.11 per cent is cultivable waste, 11.6 per cent is current fallows, 7.04 per cent is other fallows, 10.25 per cent is sodic land not fit for cultivation and 24.04 per cent is under use other than agriculture. The land under current and other fallows, culturable, waste and sodic land not fit for cultivation together amounts to 27 per cent of the total reported area.
As per the 1990-1991 Agricultural Census there are 21076 operational land holdings in the district of Lucknow, which cover an area of 172673 ha. There is predominance of marginal and small holdings in the district which is 74.45% and 17.67%, respectively. The average size of holding of marginal farmer is only 0.4 hectare. The marginal and small holdings with a share of 92.12% of total holdings cover 67.9% of the total land area. It is glaring to note that marginal holdings which have a share of 74.45% cover less than 40 percent i.e. 37.75% of the total land area and the large holdings which has got a share of less than one per cent cover 7.52% of the total land area. The average size of holding of marginal farmer is only 0.4 hectare, which speaks of need of intensification as well as diversification.
The soils of the district are alluvial and are neutral to moderately alkaline to sodic, calcareous at lower depth, very low to in nitrogen and phosphorous, low to medium in potash and in organic matter. The pH of the soils ranges from 7.1 to 9.6. The soils of Lucknow district have been categorized into 13 soil series which shows the distribution of different series of soil in different pockets of blocks indicating these magnitude of variability for soil type in each block.
The nature of soil indicates that these thirteen series of soils broadly fall under two groups of current land use, namely, C1 and C2 group soils are fit for cultivation of all kind of crops while C1 group soil, are not fit and can be put to cultivation after necessary reclamation/treatment.
The district of Lucknow has got 83 percent of the net sown area under irrigation, which is quite high in comparison to the state-irrigated area (62.3%). The data reveals that there is considerable increase in the percentage of net irrigated area to net sown area over a period of one and half decade. The percentage of net irrigated area to net sown area in the district of Lucknow has increased was maximum in case of Mohanlalganj and the minimum in case of Bakhshi-ka-Talab. The percent increase in net irrigated area in the year 1993-94 over the year 1977-78 ranges from 40.38 (Bakhshi-ka-Talab) to 122.01 (Mohanlalganj).
The climate of the district of Lucknow is sub-tropical. The mean maximum and minimum temperature remains as 47.20 C in and 40 C in summer and winter, respectively. The monthly maximum and minimum temperature pattern reveals that over a decade (1986-96) the average maximum temperature ranges from 27.440 C (July) indicating thereby big fluctuation in maximum as well as minimum temperature over the months. The months April to May remain hot with high temperature and December and January are cool months and in rest of the months temperature remains to be moderate.
The average annual rainfall of the district is 953 mm. The monthly rainfall pattern over a period of 11 years indicates that annual rainfall ranges from 545.41 mm to 1325.09 mm. The district receives a maximum rainfall during the 3 months periods, that is, from July to September and maximum of 70 to 75% rainfall is received during these 3 months (July, August and September) except some exceptional year. Contrary to this some of the months receive very less rainfall or no rainfall.
The block-wise information on ground water resource indicates that during pre-monsoon period the ground water table ranges from 7.35 meter to 9.98 meter and during the post-monsoon period it ranges from 4.23 meter to 8.46 meter in different blocks. Out of eight, four blocks, namely, Mal, Bakhshi-ka-Talab, Kakori and Sarojininagar possess water table above nine meters during pre-monsoon period and two blocks, Mal and Sarojininagar possess water table above seven meter during post-monsoon period while two blocks, Chinhat and Gosaiganj have been observed with water table below five meter during post-monsoon period. The fluctuation in water table in different blocks from pre-monsoon to post-monsoon period varies between 1.4 meter and 3.15 meter. The block Kakori has been observed with maximum fluctuation of 3.15 meter and the block Sarojininagar with a minimum fluctuation of 1.4 meter.
The major crops
of the district are rice and wheat, which jointly occupy 73.04 percent
of the total area under cultivation. The other crops that are under cultivation
are jowar, bajra, maize, urd, moong, gram, pea, arhar (pigeon pea) and
rai and sason (mustard). The rice-wheat cropping sequence is most popular
in irrigated areas while jowar/bajra-wheat/gram/pea in rainfed areas. The
cropping intensity of the district is 147 percent. The percentage of area
sown during Kharif, Rabi and Zaid is 39.93, 49.38 and 10.67, respectively.
The main crop of Kharif is rice which occupies 28.52 percent of the total area under agricultural crops. The area under other Kharif cereals viz., jowar, bajra and maize is very less, that is, 2.96, 1.17 and 2.74 percent, respectively. The productivity of rice is 18.75 qtl./ha which is almost equal to the productivity of the State as well as the country. However, productivity of other Kharif crops, barring groundnut, is less than that of the State productivity. Among Rabi crops, wheat has the maximum share of 44.52 per cent in total area under agricultural crops. The productivity of wheat is 22.24 qtl/ha which is less in comparison to productivity of the State (24.53 qtl/ha.) as well as the country (24.93 qtl/ha.). The total pulses cover 12 percent area out of which Urd and Moong grown in Zaid season have a share of 5.52 percent. The productivity of all the pulse crops is below the State productivity. A positive growth rate of productivity is expected in the coming years for all the crops.
The
district of Lucknow is well-known for its mangoes. Mango is the most important
orchard crop occupying an area of 17577 ha, which is 97.2 per cent of the
total area under orchard in the district. The current productivity of mango
in the district is 143.4 qtl/ha. Guava is also grown in limited area that
is, in 454 ha (2.5%). Banana is coming up as a new crop in the district.
Among vegetables,
potato occupies 36.48 per cent area (7271ha) while 63.5 per cent area is
in other vegetable crops, viz. Tomato, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal,
parwal, leafy vegetables, ridge guard, bottle guard, chillies etc. The
productivity of potato is 184 qtl/ha which is slightly less than the State
productivity, i.e. 197.49 qtl/ha.
Write to :
PRATIDAN,
A-801, La-place, Shahnazaf Road,
Lucknow-226001 (INDIA)
Phone: 00-91-522-217875
Email us :
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