Rainfed rice - IRRI books - International Rice Research Institute

Variations in production
performance
Production performance was also
uneven across the states in eastern
India. With increasing population
and shrinking availability of land for
agriculture, future growth in
agricultural production in the region
must come from growth in land
productivity. The growth in rice yield
was higher than population growth
only in Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal. In other states, productivity
growth was less than 2%. Assam,
with a growth in yield of less than 1%
per year, had the most dismal
performance in raising productivity.
Rice productivity and
migration
Eastern India experienced
considerable rural-urban migration of
population (Table 1). The average
population growth rate over the last
two decades was 2.2% per year, while
the rural population grew at l.8%.
This suggests that rural-urban
migration is partly related to the
performance of the rice sector.
The growth in rural population was
almost the same as the total
population in UP and West Bengal,
which experienced impressive growth
in rice production. On the other
hand, in Bihar and Orissa, which had
poor growth, 0.3-0.4% of the people
migrated every year to urban areas in
the last two decades. An improved
performance of the rice economy can
therefore contribute to a reduction in
rural-urban migration and help ease
pressure on overburdened cities and
urban areas.
Socio-economic Constraints in Rice Production in Eastern India
An important characteristic of the rice sector
in eastern India is the large year-to-year
fluctuation in rice production due to
unreliable monsoon. The production
shortfall can sometimes be astronomical,
leading to severe food insecurity for small
and marginal farmers.
Farmers also suffer from both floods and
droughts in the same season because of
heavy early season rains and/or prolonged
droughts during the end of the monsoon.
This makes rice cultivation a risky venture,
especially for most subsistence farmers.
Table 1. Growth in rice production and productivity in
eastern India, by states, 1970-91.
States
Rice growth
(%/year)
Population
growth
(%/year)
Area Yield Production Rural Total
Assam 0.94 0.92 1.86 n.a. 2.1
West Bengal 0.45 2.27 2.72 2.1 2.2
Bihar
0.04 1.55 1.59 1.8 2.1
Orissa
Madhya
-0.34 1.88 1.54 1.4 1.8
Pradesh
Uttar
0.62 1.68 2.30 1.5 2.4
Pradesh 1.03 4.28 5.31 1.9 2.1
Eastern India 0.44 2.27 2.71 1.8 2.2
Note: The growth rates are obtained by estimating semi-logarithmic
trend lines on time series data.
Source: IRRI Rice Statistics Database.
37