Growth, Stability and Equity in Agriculture: A Quantitative Analysis

To probe the clues behind the longest lived Left Front Government in West Bengal in general and its strong hold in rural West Bengal in particular the book has examined the State’s agricultural performance for the period 1957-58 to 1994-95. All the Districts except Calcutta and all the major crops produced in the State have been covered for the analyses of growth and stability in agriculture. Further the book examines whether and how for equity has been achieved in the distribution of certain indicators of economic well being of the people and also in relation to the incidence of rural poverty along with the growth and stability in agriculture. Causes of growth and stability and the inter relationships among growth, stability and equity have also been examined. Most of the findings of this study are not only interesting but also different from the findings of the earlier studies. Another important feature of this book is to point out the shortcomings in the methodologies used in the estimation of growth rates and fluctuations in agricultural production in the existing studies. A new approach in this field has been suggested here. Moreover, there are hardly any books which discuss all the three aspects of agricultural development in West Bengal, viz., growth, stability and equity together. Unlike other studies, an integrated quantitative approach has been developed here for rigorous statistical examination of the agricultural performance.