Analysis of Socio-Economic Characteristics of Potato Farmers and Trend, Growth Rate of Area, Production of Potato in Nalanda District of Bihar, India

Abstract

This paper investigates the socio–economic situation of potato farmers and the Growth Rate of Area, Production of Potato in Nalanda District of Bihar, India. Nalanda district was purposively selected because this district has a maximum area under potato cultivation. The required data were collected from 150 randomly selected farmers for the year 2021-22. The average size of land holding and the family size was 1.51 ha. and 5.7 respectively in the study area. Potato farmers are categorized into three different age groups i.e., Below 30 years, 30-50 years and Above 50 years. The majority of farmers (40%) fall into 30-50 age group. Medium farmers are the highest annual income as compared to small and marginal farmers. The result shows that the annual income of farmers consists of farm and non-farm sources i.e., 40% and 60% respectively. The trend analysis shows that the growth rate in area and production was negative during periods I (2007–08 to 2011–12) and II (2017–18 to 2021–22), while the growth rate of area and production was positive during periods III (2012–13 to 2016–17). There was a positive trend with annual growth rates of 2.85 percent for area, 0.86 percent for production during period III and 8.82 percent and 2.19 percent for yield during the period of 2007-08 to 2017-18.