Content area
Full Text
India, well known for its diversity in cultural and food habits, is basically a rice fed economy. Demand for rice, the staple food, is growing geometrically with rapid growth in population over time. In India, rice cultivation has a long history marked in a series of technological breakthrough. Green revolution technology has been most effective not only in expanding area under this crop but also in increasing its production and productivity. Rice is one of the major foodgrain crops in India occupying 43.70 million hectares of gross cropped area (2006-07), which is largest in the world among all the rice growing countries. The total production of rice in the country was 91.05 MT in the year 2006-07, second largest in the world after China. Increasing production efficiency is one of the big tasks through which rice output can be increased. Under these circumstances, reducing the inefficiencies in the production process is the best option to enhance productivity (Reddy and Sen, 2004). Rice crop has played a leading role in improving food security in the country. Rice production in the country increased by over three times during the last four decades but in terms of yield, the performance of rice is quite dismal which is just above 2 tons per hectare. A rapid increase in rice yield is needed as there exists not much scope for bringing more area under rice cultivation.
The present study has been contemplated to examine the spatial growth in rice production over time in India.
Methodology
The rice producing states of India namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal were considered as the locale of the study in order to study the performance and potential of rice production in India. These states contributed more than 85% of the total rice production in India and, thus, were considered as the major rice producing states of India. The study was based on secondary data pertaining to the rice crop in the major rice producing states of India. To examine growth performance of rice production over time, data were obtained on area, production, and productivity of rice in the major rice producing states of India from the website www.indiastat.com for the period 1971-72...