Performance of Paddy in Eastern Vidarbha Zone of Maharashtra State

The study has examined the performance of paddy in the eastern vidarbha zone of Maharashtra for the period 1980–1981 to 2009–2010 by collecting secondary data from various published sources. The study has observed as follows: (i) The growth rate of area under paddy has been significantly increasing, whereas the growth rates of production and productivity have been found stagnant in the districts of Bhandara, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. (ii) Area is positively significant in Bhandara (0.86%) and Gadchiroli (0.56%) districts for the overall period (1980–81 to 2009–10). (iii) The coefficient of variation in productivity for the overall period has been found lowest in Gadchiroli (12.79%), in followed by Bhandara (24.94%) and Chandrapur (25.79%). (iv) Coefficients of variation in area, production and productivity have been observed almost stagnant in the overall period in all the districts. It means there was less variation in area, production and productivity of paddy in this region.