Published Paper Details:

Agriculture along its allied sectors, is the largest livelihood provider in West Bengal , more so in the vast rural areas. Census 2011 data reveals that majority of total rural workers are cultivators or agricultural laborers. Therefore, our State's development depends significantly upon the development of agriculture. Agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic fabric of India. After a long period of stagnation, agricultural growth in West Bengal was initiated in the early 1980s. There has been a growing concern in recent years about the trend of agricultural output in most of the agricultural states in post-reform period since 1990. The conducive effect of implementation of New Agricultural policy enhanced the productivity in the 1980s which have been petered out in the phase of neo-liberal reforms in India. The improper use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides in technology-intensive production of rice and wheat largely account for environmental degradation and erosion of soil fertility. Under this backdrop, this article attempts to uphold the trend of major food grain and non-food grain crop production of rural West Bengal of its own as well as across the administrative division in order to understand the agricultural development in West Bengal, if any during 200-2001 to 2014-15. The study is descriptive in nature based on secondary data published in Statistical Abstract 2015. For that research purpose, Garret Ranking tool has been used.