Introduction

Agriculture is a vital sector of the economy of Odisha and a good deal has been
achieved in this sector during the plan period. Farm production has increased
manifold and yields of major crops such as paddy, pulses, oilseeds and
vegetables have more than trebled in the last four and half decades. The
impressive long term growth in agriculture has helped in taking the state out of
famines and serious food shortages into one of the food surplus states in the
country and ensuring food, nutrition and livelihood security. But although the
need of making available an adequate food supply of reasonable quality for the
population has been accomplished, the corresponding need of sustainable and
equitable agricultural growth still remains a problem in the state. In fact,
agriculture in Odisha is characterized by wide diversity and considerable
spatiotemporal variations in growth and productivity. Such disparities are a
cause of concern for obvious reasons. In such view of the facts, a study on
spatiotemporal variations in agricultural development of Odisha is worth
pursuing. Above all, agricultural markets are the mirror of a nation’s
agriculture. The quantity and quality of foodstuffs available to the population at
large is governed primarily by the arrivals of the various commodities into these
markets. This has implications not only on the product attributes of cost and
quality but also on the larger canvass of the relationship between the cropping
pattern and the food plate of the consumer. Production of crops in tune with the
market demand is need of the hour.

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Agricultural Development in Odisha
Orissa is located between 170 31’N to 200 31’N latitude and 810 31’E to 870
30’E longitude. It has a geographical area of 155.71 lakh hectares and a
population of 3.68 crores as per 2001 census. Area wise, Orissa occupies 9th
position in India. The total cultivated area of the state is 61.80 lakh hectares, of
which 29.14 lakh ha is High land, 17.55 lakh ha Medium land and 15.11 lakh ha
Low land. About 34% of cultivated area is irrigated & rest 66% is rainfed,
exposed to the vagaries of the monsoon. So, the production of agricultural crops
in the state much depends on occurrence of a favourable monsoon. Increase in
agricultural production and farm productivity is essential for providing food
security to the vast majority of the population and achieving any significant
growth in the income levels of the people. Odisha is an agrarian state with
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry sector providing employment directly or
indirectly to 60% of total work force as per 2001 Census2. The share of
agriculture in NSDP was 61% during 1950-51 which has decreased to 21.21%
during 2008-09 at 1999-2000 prices. Manufacturing sector registered a
significant increase in terms of share in NSDP from 0.9% in 1950-51 to 13.2%
in 2008-09. The share of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) from
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry during 2008-09 at constant price (1999-
2000) is 17.12%. Evidently, Agriculture plays a critical role in the economy of
the state and livelihood of majority of its populace. The natural resources
endowment of the State is eminently suitable for a wide variety of foodgrains,
cash crops and horticultural crops and offers immense scope for agricultural
growth. The climate of the State is tropical, characterized by high temperature,
high humidity, medium to high rainfall and mild winters. The normal rainfall is
1482.2 mm distributed over 72 rainy days. The South-West monsoon
contributes about 81-83% of the annual rainfall in 53-57 days during June-

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September. The mean annual temperature of the State is 26.89o C with mean
annual maximum of 32.56 o C with a mean annual minimum of 21.30oC.

In the present agricultural scenario, the small and marginal farmers, constituting
more than 50% of the farmers, either own or rent a piece of land for cultivation.
Because of the endemic poverty, they generally cultivate their crops with little
inputs and hence crop productivity is low. In this backdrop, besides enhancing
their production capacity, increase in productivity per unit land area and
cropping intensity, and providing proper marketing avenues for marketing of
their output hold the key to agricultural development.

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Agriculture in Odisha

As an agrarian economy, Odisha employs around 73% of it & it’s population

in farming who contribute around 30% to the Net State Domestic Product. Of
the total land area, around 40% that translates to roughly around 87.46 lakh
hectares are brought to agriculture every year and about 18.79 lakh hectare of
this cropped area is irrigated. Thus a major portion of the farm land depends on
rain for water feeding the crop. Also the area under agriculture is comparatively
more in the coastal districts of Odisha i.e. Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Ganjam,
Jajpur, Jagatasinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Puri etc. Incidentally
these are also the regions of the state which fare better in the literacy rate index.

The major crops are rice, pulses, oil seeds, jute, coconut and turmeric. The crops
like tea, cotton, groundnut and rubber are of great economic importance in other
parts. Odisha contributes one tenth of the total rice produced in the country.
Other important food grains include pulses like gram, tur and arhar and Oilseeds
like groundnut, mustard and castor oil. Apart from food grains various cash
crops are also cultivated in the state. These include Jute, mesta, sugarcane,
tobacco, rubber, tea, coffee and turmeric. These are cultivated across different
geographical areas of Odisha. Odisha stands fourth in the production of jute in
the country after West Bengal , Bihar and Assam. Rice and jute, compete with
each other as they require almost similar soil and climatic conditions.
Cultivation of jute is primarily confined to the coastal plains of Cuttack,
Balasore and Puri districts.

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Total land area covered by different crops

Presented below is a list of the total land area being covered by different crops
in Odisha.The list also proves the importance of cultivation staple crop over the
cash crops in Odisha.
 Paddy 77.7%
 Pulses 10.9%
 Oil Seeds 4.9%
 Fibre crop 1.3%
 Other cash crops 2.1%
 Food crops 289.66 thousand .ha
 Vegetables 621.98 thousand .ha
 Total production 7604.36 MT
 Oil seeds (2002-2003) 1.15 lakh MT
 Rice (2002-2003) 32.44 lakh MT
 Total cereal (2002-2003) 33.50 lakh MT
 Pulses 2.05lakh MT
 Total area of degraded land 61.21 lakh ha
 Watershed project in operation 1860 nos

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Rice in Odisha

Rice is a unique creation of crop plant domestication. It is unique in having

cultivars of maturity duration varying from less then 80 days to more than 180
days and showing adaptability to a wide range of land types and water regimes,
including conditions of water stagnation where no other crop could possibly be
grown. Domestication of rice might have started before 3000 B.C. and possibly
at a number of locations in South and Southeast Asia. Jeypore tract in South
Odisha has been identified as a putative secondary center of origin of cultivated
rice (Ramiah and Ghose 1951, Ramiha and Rao 1953). The regions comprising
western Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh are recognized as the center of
origin of only aus ecotypes of rice (Sharma et al 2000).

In Odisha, rice is synonymous with food. Agriculture in Odisha to a

considerable extent means growing rice. Age-old social customs and festivals in
Odisha have strong relevance to different phases of rice cultivation:
Akhyatrutiya in May-June marks the seeding of rice, Rajasankranti in mid-June
marks the completion of sowing, Garbhanasankranti in October symbolizes the
reproductive phase of rice, while Nuakhaee and Laxmipuja coincide with the
harvesting of upland and lowland rice, respectively. Makarsankranti in mid-
January is celebrated as Chaita Parab by the tribal people as by this time rice is
threshed and brought to the granary.

Rice production in Odisha: an overview Rice covers about 69% of the cultivated
area and is the major crop, covering about 63% of the total area under food
grains. It is the staple food of almost the entire population of Odisha; therefore,
the state economy is directly linked with improvements in production and
productivity of rice in the state. In the 1950s Odisha was a leading rice-

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producing state in the country and it used to supply a sizable amount of rice
grain to the central pool of food stocks. But, the situation was strongly.

reversed in the post-high-yielding variety (HYV) period. However, during the

last 35 years, the state’s rice area has stagnated around 4 million hectares, about
10% of the total rice area of the country. Odisha’s share in the country’s rice
production was more than 11% in the pre-HYV period, which gradually
declined to 7.9% in 2008-09. Rice in Odisha is now grown on an area of 4.4
million hectares, which accounts for 91% of the area under cereals and
contributes about 94% of total cereal production in the state (Table 1).

In fact, the introduction of high-yielding varieties did not have any perceptible
impact on rice production and productivity for over two decades: per hectare
yield fluctuated between 800 and 977 kg. Yield, however, showed a substantial
upward trend from 1986 onward; nonetheless, productivity continued to remain
much below the national average (Table 2 and Fig. 1).

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Information Problems in Agricultural Sector

Agricultural sector has variety of information user community. According to

Kaniki, (1995) and Adimorah (1995) agricultural information user populations
are basically researchers, extension workers, farmers, educators, students,
agribusiness personnel, bankers, industrialists, policy makers and agricultural
librarians/documentalists. All those uses have different types of information
needs. The researchers primarily need information to make them aware of new
information that will increase yields, produce resistant seedlings to the latest
information on the new frontiers of knowledge. The educators also share the
information needs of researchers. In addition, they require information that will
improve their teaching. The academicians and students are also interested in the
agricultural information required for education purpose. Scientists need current
information in their concerned subjects to keep them abreast of the latest
development in agriculture so as to improve the quality of their research work.
In addition, they need information that is factual, current and any information
that will improve learning.

The extension workers scope of needing information is confined to serving the

farming community and making them empower with latest information on
improving the farm productivity. However, information on variety of needs
such as of resistant seedlings, control of major pests, credit sources etc. as well,
as providing information on farmers problems to the researchers. The
agribusiness personnel are interested in product information that will increase
farmers¶ output, current information on various agricultural products that will
improve agricultural productivity. The industrialists require information on
export commodities, up-to-date world markets rates and prices of commodities.

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The bankers on the other hand, are interested in lending rates as it affects
agriculture, current world markets and prices of commodities, feasibility studies
on various aspects of agricultural production and loans and credits (Aina, 2008).

Studies at the State Level

Most of the studies in India focus on disparities in agricultural performance at

the state level. However, their findings do not reveal a clear trend over time and
lack a definite pattern across states. The studies by Nayak (1998), Birthal et al.
(2011) and Chand and Parappurathu (2012) reveal the existence of wide
variations in productivity and overall agricultural performance among the states.
Somasekharan et al. (2011) studied the regional development in agriculture in
15 major states of India for the period 1971-2007. Their findings indicate that
regional disparities in agricultural performance, which increased during 1971-
88, moderated during 1988-2007 suggesting a kind of convergence.

Studies at Regional , District, Block and Tehsil Levels

Bhalla and Alagh’s seminal work (1979) laid the foundation of district level
studies on spatio-temporal variations in levels of agricultural development in
India. It reveals vast variations in yields across crops and districts. The study by
Bhalla and Singh (2001) is a milestone in contemporary research in this area
which also indicates wide inter-district and inter-crop inequalities. However, the
findings point to declining disparities over the years and convergence. Singh’s
latest study (2007) shows considerable inter-district variations in productivity
and extreme disparities in Indian agriculture. Chand et al. (2009) observed wide
variations in agricultural productivity across districts. Intensive regional and
district level studies for Maharashtra (Mohanty, 2009), West Bengal (Khan et
al., 2011) and Andhra Pradesh (Dev, 2007; Reddy,2011) also point to acute
spatial inequalities in agricultural performance. A study by Kumar et al. (2012)
concerning Haryana over three periods – up to 1990, during 1990-2002 and

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2002-09 – shows marked inter-district disparities in agricultural performance.
However, the disparities were found to have widened up to 1990, then
moderated during 1990-2002 but aggravated again during 2002-09. Raman and
Kumari (2012) studied agricultural development at the regional and district
levels in Uttar Pradesh for two years – 1990-91 and 2008-09 – and found
evidence of remarkable and persistent disparities. However, the disparities were
observed to have narrowed in 2008-09. At a more disaggregate level, the study
by Ajagekar and Masal (2011) on agricultural development in Kolhapur district
of Maharasthra for the year 2003-04 reveals glaring disparities across the tehsils
and still greater inequalities across the villages at the grass roots level. From
their study relating to South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal for the year
2001, Mandal and Dhara (2012) found a wide range of variations with higher
productivity in Blocks under the south-western and north-central parts of the
district than others.

Crop coverage & crop production

(a) Food grains

Kharif is the main cropping season and rice is the principal crop during Kharif
season. Cropping during Rabi season is mainly confined to irrigated areas and
areas with residual moisture (i.e. rainfall during last part of October). Other
important crops produced in the State are Pulses (Arhar, Mung, Biri, Kulthi),
Oilseeds (Groundnut, Til, Mustard and Niger), Fibres (Jute, Mesta, Cotton),
Sugarcane, Vegetables and Spices, Mango, Banana, Coconut & Cashew Nut are
the main Horticultural crops of the State. If there is a good rainfall during last
part of October, the coverage under pulse crops & production are higher. Odisha
is one of the largest producer of vegetables in the country. Paddy is the major
crop and comprises of more than 75% of the cropped area in the state followed
by pulses with about 11% of cropped area. Oilseeds accounts for nearly 6% of
the cropped area and other cash crops are quite less with only 3 per cent of

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acreage. The area and production of food grains in Odisha are presented in
table-3.3. Area under cereals has marginally increased whereas area under
pulses recorded five-fold increase in the last sixty years.

Contribution to GDP
Agriculture is the mainstay of the state economy and the principal substance of
the life of the people. Odisha is an agrarian state with the agricultural and
animal husbandry sector contributing 21.1% of net state domestic product
(NSDP) in 2007-08 at 1999- 2000 prices and providing employment (direct or
indirect) to 70% of its population as per the 2001 census. The share of gross
state domestic product (GSDP) from agriculture during 2007- 08 at constant
prices 1993-94 and at constant prices 1999-2000 was 19.5%. Therefore,
agriculture plays an important role in the economy and livelihood of Odisha
people (Odisha Agricultural Statistics 2008-09).

The Coastal Region

This region contains about 15% of the geographical area of the state and it runs
along the coastline having width varying from 24 km to 72 km from the sea
coast. The soils are alluvial, both deltaic and coastal. The deltaic alluvial soils
are generally fertile but low in N and P. The coastal alluvial soils within 10 km
of the sea coast show high total soluble salts, mainly sodium chloride due to
tidal inundation. The coastal belt has about 1.70 million hectares of rice land
constituting about 38% of the total rice area. The rice land generally suffers
from serious waterlogging problems and is flood prone. The region has two
distinct agroclimatic zones. Total rice production in this region is estimated to
be 2.68 million tons with a productivity of 1,577 kg/ha.

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Balasore, Odisha
Balasore in Odisha has an 81-km-long coastline, and because of its proximity to
the sea, it is interspersed with several perennial rivers, rivulets, seasonal
streams, and saline creeks. As a major portion of the district is situated in the
deltaic region of Gangetic river systems, it possesses rich alluvial deposits and
is suitable for intensive crop production. Paddy is the most important crop
across the district.

Despite the state’s heavy focus on paddy procurement, produce here is

frequently sold at the village level to an intermediary for a price lower than the
Minimum Support Price (MSP). The state has attempted multiple ICT measures
to break the rice miller–PACS official–village intermediary nexus, which keeps
the farmers out of the market, most recently introducing centralized token issues
and Aadhar-based procurement at the paddy purchase centers. With no market
yards of its own, the three Regulated Marketing Committees (RMCs) of
Balasore are heavily reliant on the areas made operational by the cooperative
societies in the district for the procurement operations. In spite of the
availability of a Rs 50 crore fund, the RMC has not invested in building a
market yard. There is a proposal to set up an eNAM mandi under the RMC
Bampada for which additional infrastructure is expected.

Other than paddy, key crops in the district include betel vine and green chili.
Betel vine has long trade channels leading up to the cities of Delhi and Mumbai.
The markets which operate for the commodity in the district see farmer-–trader

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interactions and have lasted over generations with varying landownership, fee
collection, and market committee membership arrangements. Green chili is
marketed by a well-organized syndicate of traders who pool in resources to
purchase the chili at the farmgate through village intermediaries and sell the
produce in Delhi’s Azadpur  mandi. 

Koraput, Odisha
Koraput’s two sub-divisions of Jeypore and Koraput have distinct topographical
and agroecological features. Jeypore is located on flat land and has been
regarded as the center of origin of rice, while the hilly and forested Koraput
sub-division cultivates a wide variety of horticultural produce. There is
significant interblock variation in production patterns in Koraput, deriving from
the knowledge practices of diverse Adivasi communities.

Paddy procurement is not a widespread exercise in the district with only 20

paddy purchase centers for the third-largest district in the state in terms of area.
Odisha is in its second year of millet procurement at present, and Koraput, with
the largest area under millet cultivation in the state, is a key site, although
procurement levels remained low in the first year.

The proximity to Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh brings in traders frequently

to one of Koraput’s many weekly haats, with one market site functional every
day of the week in the district. The RMC primarily manages these haats with
supervisors and market guards deputed to ensure proper functioning and fee
collection. The Kunduli  haat  has been given the status of a modern vegetable
market, seeing the construction of a market yard and introduction of eNAM for
ginger and potato trade.

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Conclusion
The agricultural sector is of vital importance for the region. It is undergoing a
process of transition to a market economy, with substantial changes in the
social, legal, structural, productive and supply set-ups, as is the case with all
other sectors of the economy. These changes have been accompanied by a
decline in agricultural production for most countries, and have affected also the
national seed supply sectors of the region. The region has had to face problems
of food insecurity and some countries have needed food aid for IDPs and
refugees.

Due to the relatively low demographic pressure projected for the future, the
presence of some favourable types of climates and other positive factors,
including a very wide formal seed supply sector, it should be possible to
overcome problems of food insecurity in the region as a whole, and even to use
this region to provide food to other food-deficient regions. Opportunities must
therefore be created to reach these results.

In order to address the main constraints affecting the development of the

national and regional seed supplies that are mentioned here, the region requires
integrated efforts by all national and international stakeholders and institutions
involved in seed supply and plant genetic resource management. On practical
issues, lessons learned by some countries could be shared with other countries;
e.g. on how to progress with the transition or how to recognize the most
immediate needs of farmers. Appropriate policies should also be established, at
various levels, in order to facilitate seed investment and development in the
region.

Reference

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www.wikipedia.com

www.fao.org

www.downtoearth.org

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