Statistical Analysis of Growth and Instability of Rabi Food Grain Production in Coastal Districts of Odisha, India

Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of Odisha, India. Food grain production in the state is mainly confined in the coastal areas. Coastal land, one of the important production systems occupying an area of about 10.78 million ha, has a significant contribution to the food grain production of the state. Food grains include both cereals and pulses. To study the variation in production of Rabi food grains, a study is made about the area and yield of rabi food grains in these coastal districts from the year 1993-94 to 2014-15. For this purpose, the whole period of study (1993-94 to 2014-15) is divided into two sub-periods i.e. Period-I (1993-94 to 2002-03) and Period-II (2003-04 to 2014-15) on the basis of scatter plot of area, yield and production of Rabi food grains of Odisha. The Indian cropping season is classified into two main seasons-(i) Kharif and (ii) Rabi based on the monsoon. This study includes test of significance of change in mean and variance of area, yield and production of Rabi food grains from Period-I to Period-II. To test the significance of change in mean and variance of area, yield and production of rabi food grains from Period-I to Period-II, Fisher′s t-test and Snedecor’s F-test have been used respectively. No significant change in mean area from Period-I to Period-II was found but there is high variation in mean yield and mean production of Rabi food grains. High variation in mean yield and mean production of Rabi food grains is marked which may be due to uneven spread of technologies. The results of the study revealed that the variability (variance) in production of Rabi food grains of Odisha increased from Period-I to Period-II. Change in coefficient of variation of area, yield and production of Rabi food grains show significant decrease from Period-I to Period-II.