Pilot City - Magadi (India)

Magadi is a taluk 45 km west of Bangalore and comes under the newly formed Ramanagar District (prior to August 2007 it was part of Bangalore Rural District). Geographically, Magadi is situated on the Deccan Plateau and between latitude 12° 58’ & 12° 97’ degrees North and longitude 77° 23’ degrees East.

Magadi has a good climate owing to its average elevation of more than 900m above sea level. The maximum temperature during summer is 38°C and the minimum 12°C in winter. The average maximum and minimum temperatures are 33°C and 14°C, respectively. The average annual rainfall is 800 mm. Most of it is received between June and September from the southwest monsoon. However, the northeast monsoon also brings rain for a short period during November to December.

Magadi taluk has an undulating terrain. It has 8.0 lakh ha of geographical area, of which about 4.5 lakh ha is net cropped area. Total number of farmers in the taluk are 39,462, of which 31,888 have small holdings. Major crops grown in the area are ragi (26,314 ha), paddy (3,798 ha), field beans (2,500 ha), horse gram (2,370 ha), groundnut (1,690 ha) and red gram (855 ha). Vegetables are grown through-out the year under assured irrigation in some pockets. The produce is sold both locally and in Bangalore. The small and marginal resource poor farmers have several problems relating to agriculture production and marketing. Farming being the mainstay of the population, deteriorating agricultural conditions have become a matter of concern. The shallow soils with low organic matter content add to the problem with their poor water holding capacity and poor fertility levels. Because of the pervading mono cropping practices not only are the soils continuously impoverished but also the pest and disease build up becomes quite acute. Over the years, as the vegetation on and around the farms is getting depleted, the sources of both animal fodder and organic manures have diminished. Thus, food and fodder scarcity have become immediate serious problems.

Today, every farmer produces something to sell, since cash income is a must both for the family and for farming. But, in most cases, farmers are losers in the market place. As such, understanding the market behavior and practicing collective market operations will be helpful to them.