Patterns of Crop Concentration and Diversification in Bihar : An Inter-district Analysis

Bihar is a predominantly agricultural state in the heartland of fertile Gangetic plains. Despite having a rich endowment of river basins, the state lagged in capturing the fruits of the green revolution due to the lack of proper water management and irrigation infrastructure. This is exacerbated by peculiar geographical challenges like – floods in the northern districts and drought in the southern districts. These variations have played a key role in widening agricultural disparities. The lack of ‘good political intentions’ and ‘balanced regional development policies’ results in the carving out of minerals-rich districts in Jharkhand leaving agriculture and allied activities as the last resort for the people of Bihar. The implementation of consecutive ‘Agricultural Roadmaps’ (2008-12; 2012-17; 2017-23) after the formation of a development-oriented government under the leadership of Hon’ble Shri Nitish Kumar has transformed the state’s agricultural economy to a certain extent. This paper analyses the inter-district disparities with the help of the ‘crop concentration’ and ‘crop diversification’ index during the past decade. The secondary data extracted from portal of ‘Area and Production Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India’ enables us to undertake a comparison at two-time points: 2011-12, and 2020-21. The results from the analysis show that specific districts can be identified as specializing in the cultivation of a particular crop or group of crops. The cropping pattern (as indicated by Bhatia’s concentration and diversification index of major crops among the districts) has changed over the past decade. The resultant implications have also been outlined in brief in this research