Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Regional disparities in agricultural development a district level analysis for the state of Rajasthan

Auteur : Newar, Sapna

Université de soutenance : The IIS University

Grade : Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2018

Résumé
The present study is an attempt to understand nature and extent of inter-district disparities in agricultural development in the state of Rajasthan. The study spans over a time period of twenty four years from 1990-91 to 2013-14 and covers 27 districts which existed at the time of 1991 census. The study is based on secondary data primarily sourced from annual publications by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur and various other sources like Census Reports, Economic Survey Reports etc. The methodology for present study includes : (i) Estimation of labour and land productivity in rupees terms, (ii) Analysis of crop yield at state and district level (iii) Regression Analysis to study whether the use of agricultural inputs and infrastructure can predict the level of agricultural output. (iv) Principal Component Analysis to rank and categorize the districts on the basis of agricultural development, and (v) Estimation of disparity measures like coefficient of variation, standard deviation of logarithms, relative mean deviation to study the extent of inter-district disparities in agricultural development. The major results of the study have shown that the gap between highly developed and highly underdeveloped districts in terms of land and labour productivity has come down, though marginally. The detailed study of crop yield and crop diversification done in chapter five shows that crop yield gap between highly developed and highly underdeveloped districts has been almost stagnant and the phase of crop diversification in Rajasthan was very slow for the time period under study. The results of regression analysis tend to confirm the premise that the selected predictors, pertaining to the use of agricultural inputs and infrastructure, positively affect agricultural productivity. The increased concentration of districts in the category of developed districts as their number increased from six to nine from 1990-93 to 2011-14 can be seen as a positive move towards balanced regional development in agriculture sector of the state on the basis of PCA analysis. However, no deliberate attempt in this direction is evident as 50 percent of the underdeveloped districts of 1990-91 registered a further fall in their composite scores of agricultural development in 2011-14 and entered in the category of highly underdeveloped districts. Results of other disparity measures like Relative Mean Deviation, Coefficient of Variation, and Standard Deviation of Logarithms indicate that considerable inter-district inequality exists with respect to all the indicators. The thesis suggests a number of policy recommendations to narrow down the gap between developed and underdeveloped districts.

Mots clés : Social Sciences,Economics and Business,Economics,Regional, disparities, agricultural, development, district level, Rajasthan

Présentation et version intégrale (Shodhganga)