1Junior Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Visva-Bharati
2Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Visva-Bharati
Online published on 21 March, 2018.
Agriculture with its allied sectors is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in West Bengal as well as in Birbhum district. Agricultural development is not uniform in the district and it varies from block to block. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the cropping pattern and analyse the spatio-temporal variation in agricultural productivity of Birbhum district between 2001–02 and 2012–13. For this purpose, Jasbir Singh formulae of crop yield and crop concentration indices ranking coefficient have been used to delineate agricultural productivity regions. Birbhum district as a whole experienced very little change in cropping pattern. In 2001–02, there were only four blocks under high agriculture productivity category while it was nine in 2012–13. On the other hand, position of two blocks lowered from high productivity category to low productivity category. In both the period, the agricultural productivity level is not good. South western parts of Birbhum district are in worst condition.
