Altitude and sustainability of agricultural development: a case study of southern Kumaon region

The present paper is an attempt to analyse spatial patterns in the levels of agricultural development in the Southern Kumaon region with selected 16 agricultural development indicators. A composite index of agricultural development for the period of 1995 to 2008 has been constructed by ‘Z’ score statistical technique. The resulted ‘Z’ scores are logically grouped into four categories on the basis of ‘Nested mean’ statistical techniques. For the presentation of voluminous data on maps ARCVIEW GIS (9.3) software has been used. An account for the determinants of the level of agricultural development has been made in relation to agricultural situation, infrastructural development and agricultural production. In the end it was observed that there is an inverse relationship between the altitude and the sustainability of agricultural development.