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I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 Need for the Present Study 6 1.3 Objectives 7 1.4 Organization of the Study 7 II Study No. 162 Determinants of Stagnation in Productivity of Important Crops in West Bengal K.M.B. Rahim D. Majumder R.K. Biswas Agro-Economic Research Centre Visva-Bharati Santiniketan 2011 2 CONTENTS Page No. I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 Need for the Present Study 6 1.3 Objectives 7 1.4 Organization of the study 7 II. RECENT DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE IN THE STATE 2.1 Introduction 8 2.2 Rainfall 8 2.3 Irrigation Status 11 2.4 Land Use Pattern 12 2.5 Changing Pattern of Land Holding 13 2.6 Changes in Cropping Pattern 14 2.7 Area, Production and Yield of few crops in West Bengal 15 2.8 Changes in Input Use 16 2.9 Changing Cost Structures of Principal Crops 18 2.10 Trends in Agricultural Prices 20 2.11 Capital Formation in Agriculture 21 III MEASUREMENT OF GROWTH AND STAGNATION IN CROP PRODUCTIVITY 3.1 Introduction 23 3.2 Literature Review on Agricultural Productivity 23 3.3 Methodology for Measuring the Stagnation in Productivities 26 across the Crops/States IV TRENDS AND PATTERN IN PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY : DISTRICT LEVEL ANALYSIS 4.1 Introduction 37 4.2 Rationale for methodology 37 4.3 Crop Specific Growth of Production and Productivity 37 4.4 District-wise changes in Production and Productivity of Rice 48 V DETERMINANTS OF PRODUCTIVITY OF RICE 5.1 Introduction 53 5.2 Methodology 53 5.3 Limitation of data 53 5.4 Results 54 VI SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 64 VII POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 74 VIII REFERENCES 76 IX ANNEXURE I 77 X ANNEXURE II 80 3 LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page No. No. Chapter -II 2.1 Average Annual Rainfall in the State 1960-61 to 2005 9 2.2 Drought-prone Regions of the State 10 2.3 Irrigation from different sources and proportion of Net Irrigated 12 Area from Different sources of Irrigation Triennium Ending Average (TE) 1962-63 to 2002-03 2.4 Changes in the Land Use Pattern 13 2.5 Changing Structures of Land Holding and Area Operated 1970- 14 71 to 2000-1 2.6 Changes in the Cropping Pattern 15 2.7 Average Annual Compound Growth Rates of Area(A), 16 Production(P) and Yield(Y) of Major Crops in Different period in West Bengal. 2.8a Fertilizer Consumption (in ‗000 tonnes) 17 2.8b Major Input Use 17 2.9a Area under Principal HYV Crops 18 2.9 b Changing Cost Structure for Paddy 19 2.9c Compound Growth Rates of Inputs for Paddy 20 2.10 Average Annual compound Growth Rates of WPI, FHP and MSP 21 of Major Crops in different periods 2.11a State Budgetary Allocation over the Years 22 2.11b Details of State Budgetary Allocation (Total Expenditure) 22 Chapter -IV 4.1 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 38 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop - Rice 4.2 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 41 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop - Wheat 4.3 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 42 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop – Total Cereals 4.4 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 43 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop – Total Pulses 4.5 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 45 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop – Total Foodgrains 4.6 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 46 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop – Total Oilseeds 4.7 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 47 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop – 4 Jute 4.8 Crop-wise Average Annual Growth Rates of Area (A), Production 48 (P) and Yield (Y) across districts in different periods, Crop – Potato 4.9 Performance of Rice across the regions in the state 50 – 51 Chapter -IV 5.1 Correlations Matrix 54 5.2 Regression Results 55-58 5.3 Multiple Regression results 59-62 LIST OF FIGURES Figure No. Title Page No. Chapter - I 1. Rice in West Bengal 5 2. Yields Rates Some Important Crops in West Bengal 6 Chapter - II 3 Normal Rainfall 2006 10 5 PREFACE In a country like India we are faced with a wide regional diversities in agro-climatic specifications, resource endowment and population density which gives rise to uneven agricultural development across the country. In West Bengal also we do find a wide cross section of agro-climatic zones that poses a spectrum of hurdles for a rapid agricultural development in the state. In the 60‘s new technology in the form of seed-water-fertilizer package was introduced in order to achieve self sufficiency in food grain production in the country. However, the pace of agricultural development throughout the country was not uniform depending upon varied physical and social resource endowments. In West Bengal, however, the so called ‗green revolution‘ have had little impact in revolutionizing agricultural production. An impotant development in later half of 80‘s was the spread of new technology to the eastern Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Assam. But the pace of growth did not last long. After a period of growth acceleration, agricultural productivity in the state experienced stagnation during the later years of the 90‘s. In the light of these facts, the present study entitled ―Determinants of Stagnation in Productivity of Important Crops in West Bengal‖ has been taken up as a common study at the instance of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. The study was carried out by Professor Kazi M. B. Rahim, Mr. Debanshu Majumder and Mr. Ranajan Biswas. Mr. Debanshu Majumder and Mr. Ranjan Biswas have collected, tabulated the secondary and shouldered the responsibility of analyzing the data and preparation of tables. Drafting of the report was done by Professor Kazi M. B. Rahim, Mr. Debanshu Majumder and Mr. Ranjan Biswas. The secretarial assistance was provided by Mr. N. Maji, Munsi A. Khaleque, Mr. D. Mondal, Mr. D. Das, Mr. P. Hazra and Mr. S. Sadhu. Duplicating of the report was done by Mr. A. Patra. On behalf of the center, the undersigned takes this opportunity to thank the officials of the Directorate of Agriculture, Government of West Bengal and officials of the Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics, Government of West Bengal and other concerned departments for their co-operation they extended in course of the study. Santiniketan Debashis Sarkar August, 2011 Professor & Director 6 I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction In a country like India we are faced with a wide regional diversities in agro-climatic specifications, resource endowment and population density which gives rise to uneven agricultural development across the country. Within such an envelop of diversity Indian agriculture has experienced significant variation of growth and development since independence. In the 60‘s new technology in the form of seed-water-fertilizer package was introduced in order to achieve self sufficiency in food grain production in the country. However, the pace of agricultural development throughout the country was not uniform depending upon varied physical and social resource endowments. The new HYV technology which resulted in appreciable increases in the yield of wheat was more or less confined only to Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. In West Bengal, however, the so called ‗green revolution‘ have had little impact in revolutionizing agricultural production. Rice, the main crop covering over 60 percent of gross cropped area, reveals that practically 1983-84 (almost after two decades of ‗green revolution‘) marks the take-off of agricultural production in the state. But around mid 90‘s the rate of growth of agricultural production showed signs of deceleration. With increasing marginalizaion of holding structure it posed a threat for the tiny holders in terms of their food security. More alarmingly, the productivity does not demonstrate a sharp upward trend. Figure 1 : Rice in West Bengal 18000 16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 Area('000Ha);Prodn('000Tn);Yield(Kg/Ha) 0 1952-53 1954-55 1956-57 1958-59 1960-61 1962-63 1964-65 1966-67 1968-69 1970-71 1972-73 1974-75 1976-77 1978-79 1980-81 1982-83 1984-85 1986-87 1988-89 1990-91 1992-93 1994-95 1996-97 1998-99 2000-01 2002-03 2004-05 Year Area Production Yield 7 1.2 Need for the Present Study An impotant development in later half of 80‘s was the spread of new technology to the eastern Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Assam. This has, for the first time, extensively increased the productivity and output levels in the densely populated eastern states of India. In the early years of green revolution eastern states like West Bengal did not respond largely to the new technology, apart from a few exceptions like Barddhaman where HYV rice made a breakthrough. But mid 80‘s started with a high note. Researchers finally accepted that the agrarian impasse (Boyce 1987) in West Bengal that continued till early 80‘s was eventually ended. Unfortunately this rising trend did not sustain for a long period. Since mid 90‘s the agricultural output and productivity reflected a plateau. Four important crops (Rice, Wheat, Potato and Mustard) in West Bengal the productivity over the years seems to stagnate. Productivity for Potato demonstrate decreasing trend since mid 90‘s. Figure 2 : Yield Rates of Some Important Crops in West Bengal 30000 25000 20000 15000 Yield (Kg/Ha) Yield 10000 5000 0 1951-52 1953-54 1955-56 1957-58 1959-60 1961-62 1963-64 1965-66 1967-68 1969-70 1971-72 1973-74 1975-76 1977-78 1979-80 1981-82 1983-84 1985-86 1987-88 1989-90 1991-92 1993-94 1995-96 1997-98 1999-00 2001-02 2003-04 Year Rice Wheat Potato Mustard 8 In the meantime economic liberalization came into fore.
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