Agricultural Location and the Market: Revisiting von Thunen in Indian Context

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The validity of Thenun's model has been tested at different spatial scales under various geographical conditions in several countries of the world including India. There is, however, hardly any study in India, which makes a comprehensive analysis of agricultural location in the rural hinterland around a market center for empirical testing of von Thenun's model of land use. The present book is commendable exception. Nearly 800 villages, distributed in 26 kms long hinterland around Jalandhar City in Doab region of Indian Punjab, have been divided into eight equidistant rings for empirical testing of von Thenun's land use model. The role distance from the market in geographical fashioning of agricultural land use around a city has been examined in a comprehensive and systematic manner. The right kind of questions, raised in the book, has been answered logically and comprehensively. The book divided into eight chapters examines the role of distance from the market in spatial organisation of land use intensity, cropping pattern, irrigation intensity, agricultural productivity, degree of commercialization of agriculture and dairy farming. The role of distance from the city was strongest in case of vegetable and fruit crops followed by density of dairy cattle, density of poultry birds and irrigation intensity in a sequential order. The distance of 12 kms seems to be the critical one in their case. In contrast, intensity of land use and intensity of cropping pattern were hardly influenced by the distance from Jalandhar City. Similarly, agricultural productivity and the distance from the city find positive rather than negative relation. Over the period, sugarcane has been more profitable crop than the paddy crop in the study area. In case of the former crop, the location of sugar mills, located in the seventh zone and the eighth zones, was more critical than the market centre. That is why; agricultural productivity has shown the highest values in money terms in these two zones, falling far from Jalandhar City. This well researched and documented book will be of interest to scholarly audience in geography, economics, sociology in addition to bureaucrats and policy planners, journalists, activities and an informed general audience.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jagtar Singh

Coming from a family of agriculturalists of Ambala, Jagtar Singh, when he joined The Indian Express, Chandigarh in 1978, was amongst the very few English language journalists of Punjab with a wide knowledge and background of rural Punjab and Haryana. Possessing a great capacity for diligent field work, he was aided by his understanding of the religio-political ethos of the region and in his writings, was soon imparting meaning to the fast paced developments, then sweeeping Punjab. His foray into this, till then, urban bastian was preceeded by an indepth study of political economy, interspersed with personal experiences of mass struggle and repression by the state machinery in the late 1960's and early 1970's in Punjab. In his journalistic career he utilised the opportunities afforded by the old school of journalism to bring home to the readers the major current and cross-currents which enveloped Punjab in the 1980's and 1990's. Arguably Jagtar Singh is one of the foremost authorities on Punjab, its politics and society, and particularly the politics of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which seem to be beyond the comprehension of the whistle-stop journalists of the new era. Jagtar Singh has always been known for a meticulous record keeping, combined with a dispassionate, balanced and unsparing approach to events and players and these qualities are amply on display in this work as well.