ASSESSING CROP DIVERSIFICATION ACROSS LAND SIZE CLASSES: EVIDENCE FROM MURSHIDABAD DISTRICT, WEST BENGAL

Diversification towards high-value crop is considered to be an important strategy to tackle many problems specially in third world countries. It ensures better income opportunities and employment generation and, offers better nutrition security and sustainability of natural resources. Broadly, the concept of diversification carries different meanings to different scholars at different levels. It simply refers to the cultivation of multiple crops in a particular region at a given time. This study is conducted to analyse the spatiotemporal changes of the crop diversification index across different land size class categories at the block level in Murshidabad district during 1995-96 to 2015-16 and recent data extrapolated from 2015-16 Census data. The required data for 1995-96 and 2015-16 have been obtained from Agriculture Census of India. To calculate the diversification index, Gibbs-Martin’s technique is applied. The result reveals an increasing trend of crop diversification in the district however, marginal land size farmers are gaining better than other land size categories. The study suggests for proper capacity-building programs along with focused based policy intervention from major, micro and local initiatives to groom diversification process as continuous and fruitful process.