Factor influencing production of winter rice (Sali rice) in the Nalbari district of Assam (India)

The present study was carried out in the Nalbari district of Assam to analyse production of rice. Both production and constraints related important factors were studied. The Nalbari district was selected purposively for the study as the district is a predominantly rice growing district and also from the points of convenience and acquaintance of the researcher. A Multistage Stratified Random Sampling technique was used to select the ultimate sample units i.e., the rice growing farmers from six selected villages of two development blocks, viz, Tihu and Borigog-Banbhag. In total 120 rice growers were selected randomly for the study. The Cobb-Douglass functional form was used to analyse the influence of various factors towards rice production. Also production constraints were identified and ranked. The FYM, irrigation and human labour affected the production process of autumn and winter rice but in summer rice, seed also affected the production along with FYM, irrigation and human labour. All demonstrated Increasing Returns to Scale but it was higher in case of autumn rice (1.101) as compared to summer (1.052) and winter rice (1.019). The major constraints of production of rice size of land for marginal, insufficient, irrigation for small and medium and availability of labour for the large farmers. The study indicated that major thrust should be given on making availability of human labour particularly to large farmers, development of irrigation facility in rural areas.