• INTER-DISTRICT DISPARITY IN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF ASSAM

Abstract

The level of agricultural development of twenty seven districts of the state has been worked out with the help of a number of developmental indicators. The level of development is estimated with the help of composite index based on optimum combination of all the developmental indicators. The composite indicators are obtained with the help of two different methods. The district-wise data in respect of twenty one indicators are used for twenty seven districts of the State. The data on most of the indicators are for the year 2011-2012.The district Nalbari is ranked first and the district Dima Hasao is ranked last. From the analysis, it is observed that very nominal percentage of total population resides in the developed districts. Wide disparities are obtained in the level of agricultural development among different districts of the state. Ranks of the districts in the level of agricultural development obtained from both the methods are compared. It is observed that there is no significant difference between the ranks obtained from the two methods used. For bringing out uniform regional development, potential targets have been estimated for low developed districts. These districts require improvements of various dimensions in some of the indicators for enhancing the level of overall socio-economic development.