Rice Productivity Analysis in India

 

Regional Variations of Rice Productivity   

Rice is grown from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Amritsar to Nagaland almost in every district with variations in area of cultivation. The entire country has been divided into five rice growing zones. These zones are mentioned below along with the states falling in each zone.

 

SLName of the ZoneName of the States  
1.Southern
Zone
Andhra Pradesh
Karnataka
Kerala
Tamil Nadu
Pondicherry
Andman & Nicobar Islands 
2.Northern
Zone
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu & Kashmir
Punjab
Uttranchal
3.Western
Zone
Goa
Gujrat
Maharashtra
Rajasthan
   
SLName of the ZoneName of the States  
4.Eastern
Zone
Bihar
Jharkhand
Madhya Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Orissa
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
5.North-Eastern
Zone
Assam
Arunachal Pradesh     
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Sikkim
Tripura
   

 

There is is significant variation in the productivity of rice between rice growing regions in the country. Area, production and yield of rice per hectare during the year 1998-99 to 2000-2001 have been pooled together to arrive at triennium average and triennium average thus worked out for area, production and yield/ha have been used for analysis of regional variation of rice productivity in this chapter.

Southern Region   

In southern region, rice is the most important crop and it is grown in this region more than one crop in a year. Four states viz. (1) Andhra Pradesh (2) Karnataka (3) Tamil Nadu and (4) Kerala and two Union Territory viz. (1) Pondicherry and (2) Andaman & Nicobar Islands are coming in this region. The cultivation of rice is spread over in 96 districts of southern region. Average area under rice in Southern region was 8.21 million hectares during the triennium ending 2001, which was 18.3% of national triennium average area of 44.88 million hectares during the triennium ending 2001. The average total production of rice in the states of Southern region was 23.82 million tonnes, which was 27.2% of average national production of rice i.e., 87.37 million tonnes. The productivity of rice in Southern region is the highest as compared to other regions. The average productivity of rice for three years (1998-99 to 2000-01) has been worked out to 2901 kg/ha in Southern region, which was 49% higher than the average productivity of 1947 kg/ha for whole country.

Northern Region   

Northern region is comprising of five states viz. (1) Haryana (2) Himachal Pradesh (3) Jammu & Kashmir (4) Punjab and (5) Uttranchal. In these states, rice is cultivated in 70 districts. Average area under rice in these districts during triennium ending 2001 was 4.31 million hectares, which was 9.6% of national average area of 44.88 million hectares during the same year. Average production of rice in Northern region during the triennium ending 2001 was 12.47 million tonnes. The share of the Northern region in total production of rice in the country was 14.3% during the triennium ending 2001. The productivity of rice in the Northern region during the triennium ending 2001 was 2893 kg/ha, which was 48.6% higher than the national productivity of rice. The productivity of rice in Northern region is slightly lower than the productivity of Southern region.

Western Region   

There are four states in the Western region viz. (1) Goa (2) Gujarat (3) Maharastra and (4) Rajasthan. Rice cultivation is spread over in 66 districts of four states. Area under rice in this region is lowest as compared to other regions of the country. Average area under rice in Western region was 2.39 million hectares during triennium ending 2001, which was 5.3% of total area under rice during the same year. The share of Western region in the total production of rice is the lowest as compared to other rice growing regions. Total production of 3.46 million tonnes of rice was recorded during the triennium ending 2001, which was 4.0% of the national average production of 87.37 million tonnes of rice. The productivity of rice in this region is the lowest. During the triennium ending 2001, the productivity of 1448 kg /ha was achieved as against the national productivity of 1947 kg/ha.

Eastern Region   

Eastern region comprises of seven states viz. (1) Bihar (2) Jharkhand (3) Madhya Pradesh (4) Chhattisgarh (5) Orissa (6) Uttar Pradesh and (7) West Bengal and this region was growing rice in 230 districts on large area. Rice is one of the main crops of this region and in Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa more than one crop of rice is cultivated in a year. Average area under rice during triennium ending 2001 was 26.52 million hectares, which was 59.1% of national average area of 44.88 million hectares. From production point of view, Eastern region contributes the highest production in the country. During the triennium ending 2001, average total production of 42.37 million tonnes was recorded, which was 48.5% of national average production of rice. Area and production of rice in Eastern region are the highest as compared to other rice growing regions of the country, but the productivity is much lower than the national average productivity of 1947 kg/ha. During the triennium ending 2001, the productivity of 1598 kg/ha was recorded.

The lower productivity of this region is attributed to various reasons such as every year occurrence of flood or drought, lack of irrigation facilities, incidence of insect/pests etc. Thus, the total production of rice is affected significantly due to low productivity.

North-Eastern Region   

Eight states viz. (1) Assam (2) Arunachal Pradesh (3) Manipur (4) Meghalaya (5) Mizoram (6) Nagaland (7) Sikkim and (8) Tripura are coming under North-Eastern region. In these states, rice is grown in 72 districts. Area under rice in this region during triennium ending 2001 was 3.45 million hectares, which accounted for 7.7% of total area under rice in the country during the same year. This region receives very heavy rainfall and rice is grown under rainfed condition. In this region, Assam state is growing more than one crop in a year. Average total production of rice in this region during triennium ending 2001 was 5.25 million tonnes, which was 6.0% of national average production of rice . The Productivity of rice in this region was 1522 kg/ha during triennium ending 2001, which was much below the national average productivity of 1947 kg/ha.

Regional variations of rice productivity during triennium ending 2001 are given in Table-3 and region-wise percentage share of area and production is depicted in Bar Diagram below.

 

Table-3 :Regional Variations of Rice Productivity during Triennium ending 2000-01  
SLStates/Union TerritoriesNumber
of
Districts
Area (Million Ha.)Percent of All India Rice AreaProduction in Million TonnesPercent of All India ProductionProductivity
(Kg/Ha.)
1.Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerela, Tamil Nadu, A&N Islands, and Pondicherry968.2118.3%23.8227.2%2,901
2.Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Uttranchal704.319.6%12.4714.3%2,893
3.Goa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujrat662.395.3%3.464.0%1,448
4.Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal23026.5259.1%42.3748.5%1,598
5.Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim723.457.7%5.256.0%1,522
 TOTAL53444.88100.0%87.37100.0%1,947