Assessment of Crop Production Dynamics in Mizoram

The hill slopes in Mizoram are much steeper as compared to other hill states in the North East, thereby causing constraints to cultivation of crops (Grogan et al., 2012; Laltanpuii, 2018). Agriculture is the mainstay of the people of Mizoram. More than 70 per cent of the population was still engaged in agriculture for their livelihood. The most important farming system of each village community in Mizoram in order to sustain their lives was through Jhumming or shifting cultivation and about 32 per cent of cultivated areas was under this cultivation. Most of the settlements lie in the remote forest areas therefore rural areas lag behind in terms of infrastructural development. Accessibility by any means of transportation in the rural areas is less. These hindrances have led to rural backwardness, low income and food insufficiency (Sati 2015; Sati and Rinawma 2014; Singh et al., 2013). Rice is the main food staple of Mizoram which grows mainly under shifting cultivation and wet rice cultivation. It meets 33% of the state requirement. Meanwhile, area under shifting cultivation decreased by 58% and subsequently, its production declined (ICAR 2009). A number of agricultural development programmes have been implemented in the State in an attempt to attain self-sufficiency in food grains and other requirements of day-to-day life connected with agricultural practices (Laltanpuii, 2018). Also the state is endowed with wide agro-climatic conditions and sufficient genetic diversity which provide virtuous scope for horticultural based farming system to replace non-productive and destructive Jhum practices by adopting soil conservation measures, in situ moisture conservation, vermicomposting and nutrient management, crop diversification, use of high yielding varieties, proper crop rotation and orchard management and high-tech horticulture. Most suitable horticultural crops are mandarin, banana, passion fruit, pineapple, areca nut, ginger, turmeric, bird’s eye chilli etc (Singh et al., 2013).

The secondary data with respect to area, production and productivity were collected from Statistical Abstract of Mizoram, Handbook of Mizoram, www.indiastat.com and www.rbi.org  on area, production and yield during the three decades from 1989-90 to 2018-19 of major agricultural crops. The data was worked out by using compound annual growth rate, the magnitude of instability for each crop on area, production and yield through Coefficient of Variation and also the percentage contribution of area, yield and their interaction towards the production of food grains, vegetables and fruits the technique of decomposition has been adopted used (Kalamkar et al., 2002, Roy et al., 2015).            

Field crops
 
The compound growth rate and instability index under area, production and yield of major field crops such as rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds and sugarcane during the studied periods have been shown in Table 1.



Rice
 
The compound growth rate in area was positive in first decade only but for the overall period it was negative. In case of production, it was positive and significant in first and third period but for the overall period it was negative. The growth rate for yield of rice was found positive and significant only in the first period and third decades. The instability of area was less in the first period and second period due to introduction of modern technologies in the state. The production and yield have high instability over the study period especially in the second period mainly due to lack of assured irrigation facilities. The state cannot meet out food requirements of the people so, it highly depends on imports from other states.
 
Maize
 
The compound growth rate under area was observed positive and significant during the first and second decades but for the second and overall periods was negative and non-significant. The growth of production was also positive and significant only in the first period but has shown a negative trend for the overall period and yield has shown positive growth in first and third period and significant. The instability of area, production and yield has low instability in the first period and started increasing from the second period since maize is widely grown in the state.
 
Pulses
 
The compound growth rate for area was positive and significant in the first and second period and negative and non-significant in third and overall period. In case of production only in the first period it was found to be positive but non-significant and for all the periods it was negative and non-significant and in yield the growth was positive only in the third period but non-significant. The instability in area was less during the third period due to high yielding varieties and improved technology for pulses cultivation were introduced. In case of production less instability also observed in the third period as paddy fields which are used to remain fallow after harvesting of rice were being utilised for growing of pulses whereas, the yield instability has increased over the study period.
 
Oilseeds
 
The compound growth rate in area and production was found negative except in the first period and significant in area for all the periods wherein production it was significant in the second period. The growth in yield was positive in the first period with significant and third period was non-significant. The instability of area found to be low in the first period. Production and yield were less instable in the third period due to cultivation of oil palm plantation as it supports livelihood for farmers more than the cereals crop.
 
Sugarcane
 
The compound growth rate of area was found positive and significant except in the second period. In terms of production, it was positive for the overall study period. For yield of sugarcane was negative and non-significant in the first and second period. The instability of area was less instability in the third period as compared to other crops but for production and yield it increased.
 
Fruits and vegetables

The compound growth rate and instability index under area, production and yield of some fruits and vegetables such as cabbage, birdeye chilly, banana and orange during the studied periods have been shown in Table 2.

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Cabbage
 
The compound growth rate for area and production has found positive and significant under the study period, while in yield there was negative growth in the overall period but non-significant. The instability of area, production and yield has greatly declined as the government intentions was to produce off season vegetable crops round the year for which high yielding varieties seeds suitable for the cultivation were distributed to the farmers and made it available in the market at reasonable prices.
 
Birdeye chilly
 
The compound growth rate in area was positive for over the periods but non-significant in the first period, the growth of production was positive except in the second period. The growth rate of yield was positive and significant only in the first period. The instability of area and yield was highly declined in the second period due to improved hybrids varieties seed are procured by the government from outside states to enhance the vegetable production whereas in terms of production it declined in all the periods.
 
Banana
 
The compound growth rate of area and production was registered as positive and significant over the study while growth under yield was negative and significant in the overall period. The instability of area, production and yield was less in state due as the agro-climatic conditions highly suitable for the cultivations of banana and majorly grown for local consumption and has good demand in the markets.
 
Orange
 
The compound growth rate of area was found positive for the study period, but non-significant in the second period, the production and yield growth were negative in second and overall period but non-significant in production. The instability of area and production has increased widely due to negligence and poor management by the farmers in terms of pruning, removal of dead branches, application of plant protection measures etc. in the orchards.
 
Contribution of area, yield and their interaction
 
With the help of additive decomposition model, the percentage contribution of area, yield and their interaction on production of food grains, vegetables and fruits has been analysed in the Table 3 and 4. Data present in Table 3 revealed that the effect of area, yield and their interaction to the production of food grains during the five decades and divided into periods viz. 1970-71 to 1979-80 (Period I), 1980-81 to 1989-90 (Period II), 1990-91 to 1999-00 (Period III), 2000-01 to 2009-10 (Period IV), 2010-11 to 2019-20 (Period V) and 1980-81 to 2019-20 (overall period). The area effect contributing to food grains production was offsetting the yield and interaction effect in almost the periods except in the third and fifth it has negative contributions. At this period the yield effect has offsetting both the area.

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Data present in Table 4 reveals the effect of area, yield and their interaction to the production of vegetables and fruits during the three decades and divided into periods viz. 1990-91 to 1999-00 (Period I), 2000-01 to 2009-10 (Period II), 2010-11 to 2019-20 (Period III) and 1990-91 to 2019-20 (overall period). In case of vegetables the interaction effect has more contribution to the production than the area and yield effect during the first and second period. But, in the third and overall period the area effect was offsetting the interaction and yield effect. In case of fruits, the area effect has offset the yield and interaction effect over the study period except in the second period where the interaction effect has higher contribution to the production.

The result reveals the growth rate of area and production except in sugarcane showed positive and significant growth and yield of oilseeds and sugarcane was positive but significant only in sugarcane. The instability of area and production has increased for all the crops. The growth rate of vegetables and fruits for area was all positive and significant, under production orange has negative growth except in the second period, in terms of yield all the are observed to be negative in the overall period but significant in banana and orange. The instability was found to be declined in in area and production under cabbage, birdeye chilly and banana, in all the periods whereas yield of cabbage has declined its instability and under orange it declined during the second period.The contribution of area effect was more in terms of food grains and fruits whereas the interaction effect has found to be higher in terms of vegetables.

No conflict of interest among all the authors.