An analysis on area production and productivity of banana in Assam

Abstract

Background: Banana (Musa Paradisicia) is considered as one of the most important fruit crop across the globe. India is the largest producer of banana in the world with an output of 29 million tons per year on average. Assam, a state in the north eastern region of India, is one of the major banana producing state in the country. Banana is an important horticulture crop grown in Assam with some significant socio cultural importance. The production of banana in Assam accounts for 2.4 per cent of its total production in the country. Methods: The paper is an attempt to study the rate of growth and instability of area, production and productivity of banana cultivation in Assam and to compute the relative contribution of area, productivity and their interaction to the change in production of banana in the state. The study is based on secondary data for the period of 2003-04 to 2017-18. Compound annual growth rates are computed for estimating the growth trends of area, production and productivity of banana in Assam whereas Cuddy-Della Valle index of instability is used to estimate the instability. Result: The results of this study revealed positive growth in area, production and productivity of banana with low instability in the state. The productivity effect has been found marginally greater than the area effect on production of banana in the state during the reference period.