Diversification of Punjab agriculture: issues and perspectives

Diversification is an integral part of structural transformation of an economy, especially rural. Diversification of agriculture seems to possess huge potential to create new employment avenues and mitigate the problem of under and seasonal unemployment. The present study has been carried out with the objectives to examine the diversification in cropping pattern, operational holding and factors affecting crop diversification in Punjab. It was observed that wheat and rice were the dominant crops covering about 44 and 41 per cent of gross cropped area, respectively. The area under cotton and sugarcane was almost eliminated during the study period due to various production, marketing and environmental constraints. Area under vegetables increased during the period under study. The crop diversification index in the village declined from 0.39 to 0.32 during Kharif and 0.23 to 0.20 during Rabi season indicating that farmers were moving towards specialization except in the case of medium farmers whose diversification index (DI) increased significantly during Kharif season.