Nature and extent of the crop diversification kharif season in northern hills of Chhattisgarh

Abstract

The present study has examined the trend in crop concentration and diversification and advantageous crops in different districts of Northern hills of Chhattisgarh based on the secondary data of 20 years i.e., from 2001 to 2020. Simpson Diversity Index have been estimated to study crop diversification. Crop diversification represents the growing of a variety of agricultural crops that are commercially viable and locally acceptable. It means moving away from growing a single crop to a number of crops. It is an agricultural development concept towards intensification and utilization of land in cultivating multiple crops. So, in this section an attempt is made to analyse the nature and extent of crop diversification at districts and state level. At districts and state level index for different crop groups viz. overall crops (kharif crops), Paddy, Pigeon pea, Maize, Black gram, Sesamum, Groundnut and Niger are measured and quantified using Simpson Diversification Index at secondary data from 2001 to 2020. For analyses of Herfindhal Index (HHI) and Simpson’s Diversification Index (SI), the whole study period (2001 to 2020) has been classified into 7 sub-periods, considering a periodicity of 3 years. Above study revealed that the SI seems to be gradually decreasing very slowly, over the periods, from 0.2385 to 0.1935; while HI is gradually increasing with the same pace from 0.7425 to 0.7954. A decline of 6% of diversity was experienced during study period, leading to harmful effect on the farmer’s economy.