State-Wise analysis of growth in production and profitability of rice in India

The paper evaluates the growth experience of production and profitability in rice using secondary data for the period 1970–71 to 2015–16. The decadal growth in an area, production and yield of rice in India and for different states were computed and compared for the above period. It was found that area growth in most of the states has either exhausted or declined. The production growth was mainly from the growth in productivity. Therefore, future growth in rice production has to come from yield growth through technological improvement. This requires more investment in rice research to increase the yield. The trends in costs and profits were computed for the period 1980–81 to 2014–15 and it was found that cost of cultivation increased over years, but profit has not increased commensurately. The irrigated states like Punjab and Haryana have maintained profits over years, but not the rainfed states. There were losses in rice farming in rainfed states when the total cost of cultivation (C2) was considered. The main reason for the loss was the ineffectiveness of the minimum support price. This happened more frequently in the eastern states. Therefore, the government should review the state procurement operations in the eastern states on priority, invite private agencies for procurement, develop storage facilities, and development of market infrastructure in which eastern states were lagging behind. This will help farmers to adopt modern farming practices to raise productivity and profitability.