Rice productivity analysis at the districts level during trinnium ending 2000-01 has been done. A wide variation in productivity at the district level is due to varied agro-climatic conditions in which rice is grown and also the level of inputs used. Among various inputs seed, water and fertilizers including organic manures are critical ones and have direct influence on the productivity.

The highest productivity level of 4,912 kg/ha was in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu and the lowest of 283 Kg/ha in Dungarpur district of Rajasthan.

According to the productivity levels, productivity status has been classified in to following groups :

1. High productivity - Yield more than 2,500 Ka/Hectare

2. Medium productivity - Yield more than 2,000-2,500 Kg/Hectare

3. Medium-Low productivity - Yield more than 1,500-2,000 Kg/Hectare

4. Low productivity - Yield in between 1,000-1,500 Kg/Hectare

5. Very Low productivity - Yield less than 1,000 Kg/Hectare

Based on the above criterion, out of 534 rice producing districts, in the Country 110 districts were under high productivity category covering about 12.06 million hectares, which was 26.9% of the total rice area, and produced about 37.42 million tonnes, which was about 42.8% of total rice production in the country during triennium ending 2000-2001. The average productivity was 3,103 kg per hectare (Table-5). All the districts of Punjab, Goa and Pondicherry, 27 districts of Tamil Nadu, 14 districts each of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, 7 districts each of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, 4 districts each of Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur and West Bengal, 3 districts of Kerala and 1 district each of Bihar, Guajarat, Uttranchal & A&N Islands were falling under the category of high productivity group (Table-6).

There were 81 districts falling under the category of medium productivity group. The rice area under this category was about 7.77 million hectares (17.3% of total rice area) and production was about 17.45 million tonnes (20% of total production) during triennium ending 2000-2001. The average productivity was 2,246 kg per hectare (Table-5). 29 districts of Uttar Pradesh, 9 districts of West Bengal, 7 districts of Haryana, 5 districts each of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Maharashtra, Kerala, 4 districts of Bihar, 3 district of Uttranchal, 2 districts each of Madhya Pradesh and Tripura and 1 district each of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Rajasthan were falling under the medium productivity group. (Table-6)

A total number of 94 districts in the country were falling under the medium- low productivity category. These districts covered rice area of about 7.54 million hectares (about 16.8% of total rice area) and produced about 13.38 million tonnes (about 15.3% of total production) during triennium ending 2000-2001. The average productivity of this category of districts was 1,775 kg/ha (Table-5). 26 districts of Uttar Pradesh, 11 districts of Assam, 6 districts of Karnataka, 5 districts each of Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, 4 districts each of Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa, 3 districts each of Gujarat, Mizoram, Orissa and West Bengal, 2 districts each of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Uttranchal and Tripura and 1 district each of Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Sikkim and A&N Islands were falling under the group of medium-low productivity. (Table-6).

A total number of 155 districts in the country were falling in the low productivity cateogry. The area under these districts was about 11.58 million hectares, which account for about 25.8% of the total rice area in the country and their contribution in the total rice production was about 14.22 million tonnes, which was only about 16.3% of total rice production in the country during triennium ending 2000-2001. The average productivity of this group in these districts was 1,228 kg per hectare (Table-5). 25 districts of Bihar, 17 districts of Orissa, 10 districts of Jharkhand, 11 districts each of Assam, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, 9 districts of Chhatisgarh, 7 districts each of Himachal Pradesh & Uttranchal, 6 districts each of Arunachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, 5 districts each of Gujarat, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh, 3 districts of Sikkim, 2 districts each of Haryana, Meghalaya and West Bengal and 1 district each of Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu were falling under the category of low productivity group (Table-6).

A total number of 94 districts in the country were under very-low productivity group. Rice area under such category of districts was about 5.93 million hectares (constitute 13.2% of total rice area ) and the production was about 4.90 million tonnes (about 5.6% of total production) during triennium ending 2000-2001. The average productivity was only 826 kg per hectare (Table-5). 31 districts of Madhya Pradesh, 15 districts of Maharastra, 10 districts of Orissa, 7 districts of Jharkhand 6 districts each of Arunachal Pradesh & Chhatisgarh, 5 districts each of Gujarat and Rajasthan, 3 districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and 1 district each of Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Karnataka were falling under the category of very-low productivity group (Table-6).

There is no further scope of horizontal expansion of area under rice cultivation during Kharif. The only way to sustain production to meet the requirement of increasing population of the country is either to increase the productivity per unit area or increasing area under hybrid rice cultivation. The productivity of Rabi/summer rice is much higher than that of Kharif. There is possibilities of expansion of area under Rabi/summer rice provided irrigation facilities are created particularly in the States of Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The rice crop was grown in an area of 44.78 million ha. in 534 districts during triennium ending 2000-2001 (Table-5). The area under high-medium productivity group was about 44% of the total area under rice and its share was 63% to the total production of rice. About 200 districts had higher productivity than the national productivity of 1,940 kg/ha. The largest no. of districts i.e., more than 300 districts had medium-low to very low productivity which was far below the national average during the triennium 2000-2001. About 56% of rice area falls under the medium-low, low and very low productivity groups and contributes about 37% of the total rice production in the country.

Therefore, additional production of rice in the coming years will be contributed by the districts having medium, low and very low productivity. There is greater scope for increasing the productivity level and thereby increasing the production of rice in the country.

Indian Council of Agricultural and State Agricultural Universities may suggest or develop suitable location specific high yielding varieties particularly for districts those are having medium, low and very low productivity and also evolved low cost technology for increasing rice production in these areas. These districts are having special problems like flood, cold, salinity, pest and diseases. Therefore, these areas require special attention of research priorities and varietal development for increasing productivity as well as rice production in the country.

Therefore, for increasing the production level, it is necessary to make in-depth study about the location specific problems or factors responsible for the low productivity in these districts and take necessary measures for tackling these constraints or the bottlenecks so that the productivity can be increased.