Agro-industrial balance (an expository survey of Sirur Taluka)

The Gandhian concept of rural regeneration through village self-sufficiency has given birth to the current ideas of establishing an agro industrial society. The Gandhian ideas, being more intuitive, did not receive adequate consi deration from the rational thinkers in the past. But now attempts are made to examine Gandhian economic concepts with technical objectivity. The Sirur Survey is one such attempt.

This pioneering study, based on a survey of all economic activity conducted in the Sirur Taluka in Poona, is made with a view to formulating a balanced development plan and to indicating an approximate minimum site of the planning unit. The Survey besides giving a detailed statistical information about the agricultural production and consumption, ana lytically examines, for the first time, the extent and the characteristics of non-agricultural economic activity in the region. The gauging of the strength and the calibre of the leader ahip, actual and potential, available among the people of this region, is another most important and useful feature of this report. The study of water resources especially of the ground water potential, made in this survey, has considerable bearing on the agricultural development.