Inter-Districts disparity in agricultural development in North-Western India

Agricultural Development is defined as the process that creates the conditions for the fulfillment of agricultural potential. This research is devoted to the study of spatio-temporal analysis oflevels of agricultural development in North-Western India (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan states) at district level. The data have been collected from statistical abstracts of the concerning states. The status of agricultural development is assessed on the basis of the agricultural infrastructure reflected in the indicators like extent of irrigation, irrigation intensity, cropping intensity, use of packaged program etc. Level of agricultural development has been measured by composite value of sixteen indicators of agricultural development of the concerned districts and are grouped into the five categories viz. very high, high, medium, low and very low level of agricultural development. Factor analysis of the determinants of agricultural development and regression model are implemented also. There is considerable disparity in agricultural development in the study region. The study has shown that agricultural development is higher in Punjab followed by Haryana. The eastern and northern parts of Raj asthan also had satisfactory level of agricultural development due to commercial attitude and developed agricultural infrastructure. The western desert part followed by central hilly part of Rajasthan and arid part of Punjab and Haryana had low level of agricultural development due to adverse physical conditions and poor infrastructure.