Regional disparity in Odisha agriculture: A District wise analysis Padhi Pragnya Laxmi* Lecturer in Economics, Bhima Bhoi College, Rairakhol *Research scholar, P.G. Department of Economics, Sambalpur University, Odisha, India. Email id: n.pragnya@gmail.com Online published on 10 October, 2018. Abstract Agricultural variation in India is present extremely in terms of economic growth such as, per capita income, working population in agriculture, the proportion of population being poverty line etc. Some states are economically advanced and some are backward. Regional variation may be natural due to dependence on natural factors or it may be manmade due to high priority given to one sector and neglecting the other sectors in terms of investment and development. Regional variation may be inter-state or intrastate, inter-districts or intra districts, total or sectoral. The main reason of economic backwardness is high proportion of population on land, excess dependence on agriculture, low rate of literacy and technical knowledge, low productivity in agriculture etc. The entire five year plan stressed the importance of balanced regional development and policies were designed to direct move investment to the relatively backward areas. Nevertheless, regional disparity continues to remain a serious problem. In the first plan period agriculture was contributing 57% of the GDP. But the share has come down with the passage of planning and it contributes 13.7% of GDP in 2012–13. The rapid growth of secondary sector and the development of service Sector explained the declining share. This paper mainly focuses on inter district variation in agricultural development among the 30 districts of Odisha. This paper is divided into three Sections. The first section relates to introduction, review of literature, Objectives, Data base and Methodology. The second Section relates to measurement of disparities through various indicators selected for assessing the level of development of agricultural sector using Sudarshan Iyenger Method and Beta distribution. The third section relates to analysis of results classifying the districts into four categories such as very backward, backward, developing and developed districts and providing some suggestions for the reduction of inter district variation. Top Keywords Agricultural Variation, Economic Growth, Poverty, Investment, Development, Literacy, Productivity, GDP. Top |