Agriculture in West Bengal
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Agriculture of West Bengal employs about half of the state's workforce and contributes roughly one-fifth of its gross state domestic product.[citation needed] The state is the largest producer of rice and jute in India, the second-largest producer of potato and the second-largest producer of tea, with Darjeeling tea holding the country's first geographical indication for an agricultural product.[1][citation needed] The diversity of agricultural systems across the state reflects its physiographic and climatic variation, ranging from temperate orchard and tea cultivation in the Darjeeling Himalaya through the rice-jute-potato-vegetable belt of the Gangetic plain to salt-tolerant rice and brackish aquaculture in the Sundarbans.
Agro-climatic zones
Six agro-climatic zones are recognised by the Department of Agriculture, corresponding closely to the state's physiographic and soil divisions:[1]
- Hill zone. Darjeeling and Kalimpong hills. Tea, large cardamom, ginger, oranges and temperate-zone vegetables on terraced and steeply sloping ground.
- Terai-Teesta alluvial zone. Sub-Himalayan plains of Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar and the Darjeeling foothills. Tea on the better-drained piedmont fans; rice, jute and tobacco on the alluvial plains.
- Old alluvial zone. Malda, Murshidabad, Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpur. Rice, mango, lychee and mulberry silk.
- New alluvial zone. Nadia, Hooghly, the Bardhaman districts, North 24 Parganas and parts of Howrah. Rice, jute, potato, sugarcane and vegetables.
- Red and laterite zone. The Rarh: Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia, Paschim Bardhaman and Paschim Medinipur. Rice (often single-cropped on lateritic uplands), pulses, oilseeds, mesta and millets on the more degraded soils.
- Coastal saline zone. Purba Medinipur and the non-Sundarbans portion of South 24 Parganas. Salt-tolerant rice varieties, betel vine, brackish-water aquaculture and marine fishing.
Field crops
Rice
Rice is the principal staple and West Bengal is the largest rice-producing state in India, with output of about 16 to 17 million tonnes per annum on an area of approximately 5.4 million hectares.[1] Three principal seasons are recognised. Aus (autumn) rice is sown in March-April on the pre-monsoon showers and harvested in June-July; the area has declined steadily since the 1970s in favour of aman. Aman (winter) rice is the principal kharif crop, sown with the southwest monsoon in June-July and harvested in November-December, accounting for the largest share of the state's production. Boro (summer) rice is the irrigated dry-season crop, sown in December-January and harvested in April-May; expansion of boro since the 1980s has been responsible for most of the state's gain in rice production.[1] Salt-tolerant landrace varieties including Talmugur, Patnai and Hamilton continue to be cultivated in the Sundarbans.[citation needed]
Jute
West Bengal is the largest producer of jute in India, accounting for over 70 per cent of national output.[2] The crop is concentrated in Nadia, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, the Bardhaman districts, Cooch Behar and the Dinajpurs. Sowing falls in March-April and harvest in July-August, with retting in stagnant water followed by fibre extraction. The state hosts the principal Indian jute milling industry, concentrated along the Hooghly between Howrah and Bansberia.[citation needed]
Potato
West Bengal is the second-largest potato producer in India, after Uttar Pradesh, with output of roughly 11 to 12 million tonnes per annum.[3] The crop is concentrated in Hooghly, the Bardhaman districts, Bankura, Birbhum, Paschim Medinipur and the Dinajpurs, with a winter sowing in October-November and harvest in February-March.[3] Cold-storage capacity in the state is among the largest of any Indian state and is critical to the year-round national supply.[citation needed]
Other field crops
Sugarcane is grown on a small scale in Murshidabad, Nadia and the northern districts, with most cane processed at the khandsari and gur (jaggery) scale.[citation needed] Wheat is a winter crop of secondary importance, concentrated in the Bardhaman districts, Hooghly and the northern plains. Pulses (masur, mung, khesari, arhar) and oilseeds (mustard, sesame, groundnut, linseed) occupy rotation slots in the new-alluvium and lateritic belts.[citation needed] Mesta and sannhemp (sunn hemp, Crotalaria juncea) are minor fibre crops cultivated on poorer soils in the western districts.[citation needed]
Tea
Tea is the principal plantation crop and West Bengal is the second-largest tea-producing state in India after Assam. Two distinct production belts operate.[4]
Darjeeling
Darjeeling tea is produced on 87 gardens covering about 17,500 hectares between 600 m and 2,000 m on the Darjeeling Himalayan slopes.[4] The China-jat (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis) predominates. Annual output is approximately 8 to 9 million kg, processed by orthodox methods and marketed in four "flushes" through the calendar year (first flush March-April, second flush May-June, monsoon flush July-September, autumnal flush October-November).[citation needed] Darjeeling holds the first geographical indication registered in India for an agricultural product (2004).[citation needed]
Dooars and Terai
The Dooars gardens of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar and the Terai gardens of Darjeeling district produce a higher-volume CTC tea on piedmont alluvial soils, predominantly using the Assam-jat (Camellia sinensis var. assamica).[4] About 154 gardens employ approximately 350,000 permanent workers, the largest of any single agricultural enterprise in the state.[citation needed] The 2002 to 2004 plantation crisis, in which at least 22 Jalpaiguri gardens closed affecting 21,000 permanent workers, exposed the structural fragility of the Dooars labour economy and has been linked to subsequent emergence of smallholder cash-crop alternatives including cannabis on garden margins.[5][original research?]
Horticulture
Fruits
Mango is the principal fruit crop, with Malda (Fazli, Himsagar, Langra, Lakshmanbhog varieties) and Murshidabad as the main producing belts.[citation needed] Lychee is grown extensively in Muzaffarpur-adjacent parts of Malda and Murshidabad.[citation needed] Banana, papaya, guava and citrus are cultivated across the state. Pineapple is the principal cash fruit of the Darjeeling-Bidhannagar terai and the Dooars margin.[citation needed]
Vegetables
West Bengal is the largest producer of vegetables in India by volume, with major crops including potato, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, okra and pumpkin.[1] The state is also the largest producer of betel leaf (pan), concentrated in Purba Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Howrah and parts of Nadia.[citation needed]
Flowers and other commercial crops
Floriculture is a significant commercial sector, with marigold, tuberose, jasmine and rose cultivated for the festival and religious-offering markets.[citation needed] The state is among the leading producers of mulberry silk in India, centred on Murshidabad and Malda.[citation needed]
Fisheries
West Bengal is the second-largest producer of inland fisheries in India.[1] Three distinct fisheries operate. The Sundarbans tidal network supports a brackish-water capture and aquaculture fishery, with bagda shrimp (Penaeus monodon), chingri (prawn) and the regional staple hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) as the principal species.[citation needed] Inland freshwater fisheries operate across the deltaic distributaries, beels and oxbow lakes of the lower delta and across pond aquaculture statewide, producing principally Indian major carp (rohu, catla, mrigal) and exotic carp.[citation needed] Marine fishing operates from harbours along the Purba Medinipur coast including Digha, Sankarpur, Junput and Petuaghat.[citation needed]
Hilsa is treated culturally as the state fish and the species supports a substantial seasonal capture fishery on the Hooghly-Bhagirathi system during the monsoon spawning run.[citation needed]
Livestock
The livestock sector centres on dairy cattle (predominantly indigenous and crossbred cows; buffalo in smaller numbers), draught cattle, goats, sheep and poultry.[citation needed] The Black Bengal goat, native to the eastern districts, is among the most widely distributed Indian goat breeds and is reared principally for meat.[citation needed] Backyard poultry is widespread; commercial poultry is concentrated in Howrah, Hooghly and the Bardhaman districts.[citation needed]
Cannabis
Cannabis was a regulated commercial crop on the Padma-Ganga and lower Bhagirathi floodplains under the Bengal Presidency from 1793 onward, with licensed production concentrated in the Ganja Mahal at Naogaon in Rajshahi (now in Bangladesh) under a three-circle rotation supervised by the Bengal Excise Department (see Cannabis in West Bengal). A parallel state excise apparatus operated in the princely state of Cooch Behar under the Cooch Behar Excise Act of 1878.[6]
Since the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985 and the cessation of West Bengal state cannabis licensing on 11 December 1989, no licit cannabis cultivation operates in the state. Surviving cultivation occurs across two regionally distinct belts: the sub-Himalayan plains household belt across Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, worked predominantly by Bengalis and Rajbanshi; and the southwestern jungle belt across Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram and parts of Paschim Medinipur and Birbhum, drawn from the Santal, Munda and Bengali Hindu agrarian populations.[7]
West Bengal has not joined the small group of Indian states (Uttarakhand 2018, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh 2024, Himachal Pradesh) with industrial hemp policies.[8] No state-specific medical cannabis policy operates and the two principal state agricultural universities, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya at Mohanpur and Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya at Pundibari, do not list any cannabis or industrial hemp programme in their public research portfolios.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Department of Agriculture, Government of West Bengal, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, West Bengal, Kolkata: Government of West Bengal, 2023.
- ↑ Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, Jute and Jute Products: Statistical Profile, New Delhi: APEDA, 2024.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 APEDA, Potato: Statistical Profile, New Delhi: APEDA, 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Mukhopadhyay, M., Bantawa, P., Das, A., Sarkar, B., Bera, B., Ghosh, P. & Mondal, T.K., "Sick or Rich: Assessing the Selected Soil Properties and Fertility Status across the Tea-Growing Region of Dooars, West Bengal, India," Frontiers in Plant Science 13, 2022, 950993, PMCID PMC9808038.
- ↑ Bhattacharya, Priyadarshini, "Gendered Harm and Social Abandonment: Stories of the Dooars Women Tea Garden Workers," Journal of South Asian Development, 2024, DOI 10.1177/23944811241236810.
- ↑ Cooch Behar State, General Administration Report of the Cooch Behar State for 1891-92, Cooch Behar: Cooch Behar State Press, 1893.
- ↑ Al Jazeera English, "Inside West Bengal's cannabis economy," feature report, 1 January 2025.
- ↑ "How to secure a government license for hemp farming," Corpbiz, citing Government of Uttarakhand letter No. 581/XXIII/2018/04(11)/2012, 29 May 2018.