Survey in Nayanagar village, Samastipur district, Bihar
The 2018 Bihar Round village survey, conducted as part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI) is now over. Two villages in the State — Katkuian, West Champaran district, and Nayanagar, Samastipur district — were surveyed in this round. These villages were first surveyed by FAS in May-July 2012.
Nayanagar was the second village to be surveyed. The number of households in the village in 2012 was 1205; it has now increased to about 1550. 65 sample households from the village belonging to different socio-economic categories were surveyed in the current round.
Nayanagar is situated near to ‘Budhi Gandak’ river. A large part of the crop land in this village is low land and prone to flooding. It is mainly a Rabi cultivating village. Most of the operational land is kept fallow during the Kharif season. Maize and Wheat were the main crops cultivated in the village in 2012. There has been an apparent shift to Sugracane, which, along with Maize, is a main crop now. There is also an upward trend towards perennial crops and orchard farming. Mango and Litchi continue to be important contributors to the agricultural economy of the village.
Bhumihars are still the dominant landowning caste. Most of the agricultural and non-agricultural manual work in the village is done by dalit households. An increasing trend of out-migration from the village, across different socio-economic classes is evident.
Some photographs from the survey are below: