ESTIMATION OF AGRICULTURAL DYNAMICS IN THE URBAN FRINGE OF THE FERTILE GANGAYAMUNA DOAB, INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF RAMGARH PANJOOPUR VILLAGE

Rural‐urban fringe is an area of both the induced agricultural opportunities as well as the urban encroachment on the nearby villages. Ramgarh Panjoopur village is in the vicinity of sprawling Aligarh city. The village lies in the inner fringe of the city. The paper enquires the demographic structure and the social change and its impact upon the agricultural dynamics. The size of landholdings has been taken up as the independent variable and the landuse pattern and the cropping intensity as the dependent variable of the enquiry. Size of landholding is the basic resource of the farmers. It is a dynamic resource in response to technology, input and the social inheritance. Size of landholding not only determines the landuse pattern but also the social status. The basic objective of the study is to estimate the impact of the landuse dynamics. To assess the proportion of different size of landholdings in the inner fringe as against the outer fringe. To assess the percentage share of different landholdings to the total cultivated area. To examine the productivity levels in different size of landholdings. Finally, the study enquires the socio‐economic conditions of the people in the rural‐urban fringe. The present enquiry of the agricultural dynamics of Ramgarh Panjoopur village in the rural‐urban fringe of Aligarh takes into consideration the following aspects of the study area.