Study of shifts in cropping pattern of Kharif season crops in Haryana using cluster analysis

For the better understanding of the assessment of technological impact on crops and cropping systems, it is always better to study the shifts in cropping pattern with respect to area, production and productivity. Agricultural scientists generally analyze the shifts in cropping pattern on some pre defined periods but this does not give a clear picture being n arbitrary selection of the time period. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the various methods of cluster analysis. It has been found that Wards minimum variance method of cluster analysis is most appropriate for the identification of the shifts in cropping pattern of various crops in Haryana as a whole and in various agro-climatic zones of Haryana. This has been done for the data from 1976–77 to 2010–11 on various crops in kharif season.