Agricultural Policy in West Bengal: A Policy Matrix

The agricultural situation in the state has undergone a rapid change especially in last two decades. A very considerably part of the increase (real at 1980–81 prices) in the State Domestic Product (SDP) between 1985–86 and 1992–93 was sustained by the rise in the output from agriculture. During 1985–86 and 1992–93, the agricultural contribution to the SDP was increasing at about 4.7 per cent per annum, while the overall growth was 5.1 per cent per annum. A number of facilities for irrigation have been opened up and the consumption of chemical fertilisers has gone up from 558 thousand tonnes to 1109 thousand tonnes in between 1985–90 and 1997–02. This point is to an increase in the application of fertilisers to the extent of over 36 per cent. Aided by these improvements in the use of hyv rice almost is doubled between 1985–86 and 1992–93. Agricultural production specially the food crop production has achieved a reasonable degree of stability. The area under hyv rice was 34.35 lakh hectares which was increased to 44.63 lakh hectares during 1993–94 to 1996–97. Availability of infrastructure like power, rail, road network and communication are more or less adequate. However, it has been found that the development of agriculture in the state is much more quantitative than qualitative. It has been found that West Bengal has several opportunities with regard to overall development of the agricultural sector. As threats are concerned agricultural prices are lower than the international prices mostly. As a result of heavy subsidisation of agricultural exports by developed countries due to WTO obligations, the situation is fast changing. Since international agricultural prices have become lower than the Indian agricultural prices, farmers in the state have been put to a serious disadvantage.