Agriculture in Bihar

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, has described agriculture as Core Competence of Bihar. Bihar is considered as a destination for second Green Revolution in the country. Bihar is essentially an agricultural state. About 81% of population of Bihar is dependent upon agriculture. The contribution of agriculture in the state’s gross domestic product has increased in last five years.

After bifurcation of Bihar, the present state of Bihar does not have any substantial mineral resources or sizeable industrial sector. The growth of agriculture sector, therefore, assumes importance for the overall growth of Bihar’s economy. Agriculture development is central to economic development of Bihar. The base of agriculture in Bihar is its rich soil with abundant water resources, particularly, ground water. The farmers in Bihar grow a variety of crops on different soils found in different agro-climatic zones. Rice, wheat and maize are the major cereal crops. Besides these, pulses, oilseeds, fibre crops, sugar-cane, fruits, vegetables and other crops are being grown. Growing demand of flowers has also shifted the attention of farmers towards floriculture.

The north Gangetic plain of Bihar is one of the most fertile and richest agricultural tracts, not only in India, but in the world as well. Bihar lies climatically in a belt of transition between UP and deltaic Bengal and the crops grown are naturally a mixture of those cultivated in the two regions. Rice is the dominant crop, but maize, wheat, barley, grain, linseed, millets etc., are also grown especially in the western part of Bihar where the rainfall is comparatively less. Jute, a crop of hot and moist lowlands is grown in Purnea. Bihar has three agricultural harvest, namely, ‘Bhadai’ (Autumn), ‘Aghani’(Winter), and Rabi (Spring).

The Bhadai crop is sown in May-June and harvested in the month of Bhado (August-September). Autumn rice, maize, millets and jute from the main crops of this harvest.

The ‘Afghani’ harvest consists essentially of the winter rice crop which alone occupies more than 90% of the total area under this harvest. ‘Aghani’ rice is sown in mid-June, transplanted between July and mid-August and harvested usually in the month of ‘Afghani’ (end of November and December).Sugar-cane, til, surguja and jowar are the other important crop of this harvest. Sugarcane is infact an annual crop sown in February and reaped from November to January. It is an important crop of almst entire north Gangetic plain of Bihar.

The Rabi harvest includes a large number of crops like wheat, barley, gram, peas, lentils, liseed, rapeseed, mustard etc. The se crops are sown in October-November and harvested in March.

However, there are various constraints to the Development of Agriculture sector in Bihar.

(a) Uneven monsoon- Even after six decades of economic planning, agriculture in India depends mainly on monsoons. Bihar is no different in this context. The variation in monsson pattern on year to year bais resilts in flood or drought like situations in the state. Also the irrigation potential created have not been utilized fully for various reasons.

(b) Limited use of New Agricultural Technology- Since the farmers generally carry on farm operations in the age old manner, the state lags far behind in the adoption of modern farm techniques even by Indian standards.

(c)Small size of Production Units- The size of land holdings is very small and is often so tiny as to e mere plots of land. This compels the small cultivators to resort to subsidiary occupations and due to this they find that agriculture is not so remunerative as to sustain them.

(d)Decline in Investment in Agriculture- Due to high risk and uncertainty in agriculture, high variation in productivity and prices, and slow turnover, etc, the financing in farm sector has peculiar problems.

(e) Failure to control Growth of Rural Population- The Government has failed to arrest the growth of population in rural areas and also to create non-agricultural employment in the rural sector.

(f)Bulky and Perishable output- The quantum of production is very large in agriculture. Moreover, the produce is more perishable than non-agricultural output. These factors lead to a number of marketing problems and thus enhance the cost of marketing per rupee value of output sold.

Way Forward-

In order to improve the condition of agriculture and to raise agricultural productivity, the state government is targeting on irrigation schemes, distribution of improved seeds and fertilizers, taking up plant protection measures, adoption of improved and scientific farming techniques, soil conservation etc.

The importance of research and experiments in agriculture, the propagation of the results thereof, the technical know-how of scientific methods among cultivators, keeping them informed in all possible ways with a view to increase production as well as imparting agricultural education has been recognized.

To reap the benefits of green revolution a new programme named Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India (BGREI) has been launched by Union Ministry of Agriculture. It will cover the states of Bihar, Eastern UP, Jharkhand, Assam, Chattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal.

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