Crop Livestock Typology in South Asia

A crop-livestock typology for two South Asian countries namely India and Bangladesh has been constructed using Agricultural activity - based approach (AAA). The classification identifies systems / zones having similar features (agro-climatic and socioeconomic) for agricultural development and are homogeneous in terms of the expected outcomes in response to an external change. The systems / zones thus generated are characterized for their relative importance in terms of area and population, economic significance, crop and livestock activities, input use, infrastructure development and key socioeconomic and agro-climatic indicators. The crop-livestock typology is a useful tool for targeting development planning initiatives and transfer of technology. The database used for this study included data for key agricultural variables – crops, livestock, inputs, rainfall, infrastructure demography and socioeconomic, covering state and district level data for 19 states in India. A total of 520 districts were thus included for the study. Only Jammu and Kashmir and the north eastern states of India (except Assam) were not included due to non-availability of data for all key variables. For maintaining continuity in the dataset over time the data for newly formed districts after 1970 were given back to their parent districts and removed from the file. The typology was thus based on 310 districts i.e., 1966 district boundaries. The dataset for Bangladesh pertains to 64 districts. These data was obtained from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Department of Fisheries, Department of Livestock Services, Bangladesh Bank and Ministry of Agriculture. These typologies will enable to study the dynamics of the zones in the typology over time for key variables