Cropping Pattern, input use and Determinants of Crop Productivity and Diversification in the State of Rajasthan

Abstract

 Purpose: Rajasthan is geographically the biggest state in India and is one of the leading producers of oil seeds in India. A significant portion is state falls under the arid and semi-arid region making the crop cultivation difficult in that portion of the state. . Agriculture Sector plays an important role in Rajasthan economy. It contribute around 30% of the state GDP and 65% of the state total population depends on agriculture and allied activities for livelihood. Thus, an effort has been made to study the most important component of the economy of Rajasthan, i.e., agriculture sector. As a considerable part of the state income and employment is being contributed by this sector in Rajasthan. Thus, changes taking place in the economy over the period of time has been studied and focus has been on the productivity and diversification of land towards high value crops.

Methodology: To gauge weather crop diversification is taking place in the state and districts of the Rajasthan Herfindhal Index have been applied. To find out the determinants of productivity and diversification of crop in the state, multiple regressions have been applied. Further, for the determinants of productivity and diversification of crops at the district level, panel regression has been used.

Findings: The overall cereal cropping area proportion has decreased from 54.87% in 1980 to 37.82% in 2014. The Cropping area for Oil Seeds has increased significantly from 8.87 % in 1980 to 20.74 % in 2014. The area under fodder crops also increased form 15 % in 1980 to 21 % in 2014.Productivity of Garlic has increased 4 times during the period of 1980 to 2014 and for onion also productivity has increased nearly around 3 times in this period. HHI for the state is shifting towards diversification of the crops. HHI has shifted from 0.17867 in 1980 to 0.16384 in 2014.Regression results for crop productivity has shown that the determinants like Fertilizer consumption, Average land holding, irrigated area and literacy rate has a positive relation with the productivity.

Originality: The paper uses the secondary data available with government sources, the state as whole has been analyzed from 1980 to 2014 for which the latest data is available. Whereas at the district level, data from 2007 to 2014 is analyzed due to unavailability of data. Changing in the cropping pattern and the area under particular crop will help the policy makers to design the policy accordingly. At the same time sophisticated tools like HHI, Multiple regression and Hausman test and panel data have been applied for this purpose.

Paper Type: Empirical Research Paper