Present Status of Jute Production and Technological and Social Interventions Needed for Making Jute Agriculture Sustainable and Remunerative in West Bengal

Abstract

For the last few years it was a serious concern and subject of debate/ discussion that jute area and production is declining due to several obvious reasons including non-remunerative productivity & price and farmers’ inclination towards more remunerative other crops. As West Bengal shares the maximum area and production of India’s jute scenario, the present analysis of the concerned matters is restricted to West Bengal. The very purpose of this paper is to relook the actual present status of jute production in West Bengal, to find out and listing of the region specific physical and social constraints restricting to attain higher productivity with better fibre quality, to reclassify jute productivity clusters of West Bengal based on geographical proximity and similarity in jute production features and to suggest technological and social interventions for achieving the goal of higher fibre production with better quality for making jute agriculture sustainable and remunerative.