Agricultural and Rural Reconstruction: A Sustainable Approach

The book is a comprehensive account of voluntary Action in Agriculture and Rural Reconstruction for over three decades. The author of this book Dr. Jayant Patil, who is presently the Member, Planning Commission, received inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi to devote himself to the cause of upliftment of Scheduled Tribes in Maharashtra. These tribals remained underdeveloped for generations due to ignorance, poverty and exploitation. Hunger, malnutrition and underemployment were their main problems. The tribals were motivated to adopt high yielding varieties of rice and other food crops which led them to attain self-reliance in food production. The tribals established ‘Nutrition Gardens’ which included production and consumption of protective foods. This self help programme assisted in overcoming the problem of malnutrition, to a great extent. The tribals were motivated to construct small irrigation wells which enabled them to adopt multiple cropping system in place of single rice crop, which provided year round gainful employment on their land. The tribals took up cultivation of horticultural crops, establishing fruit orchards, which brought an economic stability in their life. The impact of horticultural development among tribals, was instrumental in establishing a separate Department of Horticulture by the Government of Maharashtra, in 1981. The State now has emerged as one of the leading horticultural States in the country.