Area response function of selected vegetables in West Bengal paving way to agricultural reforms in India 

Abstract

Vegetables have emerged as an important sector with high potential in our economy. They are regarded as high value crops due to its high potentiality in terms of income augmentation and employment generation. The economic importance of the crops has been slowly increasing on account of increase in domestic as well as international demand. West Bengal is the leading vegetable producing state in the country, accounting over 10% of crop's area and 8% of output in the country. The growth of vegetables has been uneven across regions and over time in West Bengal. While the area under cultivation recorded a significant expansion in some regions, in other regions it either declined or was stagnant. The objective is to study the factors influencing the area response of vegetables in selected regions of West Bengal and to project the emerging scenario of how the substitute crops influence the area response decision of the vegetable growers in the state. An improvised version of Nerlove's adjustment lag model has been adopted to explain area allocation decisions of farmers and it is preferred over expectation model. It can be said that the experience regarding area response of vegetable is not similar, the technological factors, price factors vis-a-vis higher return have favored vegetable cultivation in area increasing regions. Technological factors like irrigation though insignificant, have worked to the detriment of vegetable cultivation in Rarh and Eastern Plateau region. It has been also observed that vegetable did not enjoy any distinct comparative advantage over its substitutes either in terms of yield or price in this region and hence possibly this accounts for the stagnation of the crop in the area.