Pattern of Growth and Instability in Crop production in Burdwan during 2000 to 2013: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The study has estimated the growth and instability in production of vegetables vis-a-vis traditional crops in Burdwan as well as West Bengal. The study is based on the secondary data collected from different government sources from 2000-01 to 2012-13. The growth rates on area, production and productivity are measured by fitting exponential trend equation and instability is measured by using Cuddy-Della Valle index. The growth rates of traditional crops namely, rice (aus, aman, boro), wheat, potato and mustard are found to be either negative or insignificant during the study period in Burdwan, while the production growth rates of most of vegetables namely, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, onion, ladyfinger, cucurbits and radish are significantly positive in the district. Insignificant or negative growth in production of each of traditional crops arises due to either stagnation in productivity growth or shrinkage in area growth or both. On the other hand, significant positive growths in productions of vegetables occurred mainly due to positive growths in their areas. The production variabilities of all types of vegetable (except radish and other vegetables) are found to be very low compared to those of traditional crops. The agricultural scenario in West Bengal in respect of crop-wise growth and instability is more-or-less similar to that of its district, Burdwan.