Shifting area from major cereal crops to other crops in Saurashtra and Kutch in Gujarat

Abstract

The present study was made to examine the shift in area of major cereal crop in last five, five year plan periods (VIII^th: 1992-93 to 1996-97 to XII^th : 2012-13 to onwards ) in Saurashtra and Kutch zone. In order to calculate shift in area, average area of eighth five year plan was taken as base and percentage change was worked out for successive five year plans for different crops. For the horticultural crops the average area of tenth five year plan was taken as base, due to unavailability of data for previous plans. The data on area of major cereal crops from 1992-93 to 2013-14 and for horticultural crops 2002-03 to 2013-14 were collected from Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat state, Gandhinagar. Five year plan period wise shift in area of major cereal crops of Saurashtra and Kutch zone was calculated and the results showed that most of the cereal crops like rice, wheat, sorghum and bajra were sown 36.36%, 18.60%, 64.35% and 19.60%%, respectively decrease in area over VIII^th five year plan. The area of all the cereals were continuously decreased in XII^th plan and the area of cotton and horticultural crops (flowers, spices, and fruit crops) were continuously increased after X^th plan. It means the farmers switched over to the crops like cotton and horticultural crops, especially flower and spices crops from cereal crops in Saurashtra and Kutch zone.