District Database of Agricultural Statistics

Abstract

Agricultural research and development planning will be greatly facilitated by having access to information at a scale at which the development planning and administration is done. In India, most of such planning is done at the district level. Considering this, efforts were initiated a few years ago to develop a database of agricultural statistics at the district level and now it is being presented in a user-friendly manner. The database is useful for planning of new development programmes and monitoring the progress made in districts with introduction of developmental programmes/ schemes operated by state and federal governments. The database was designed and built keeping in view of the requirement of scientists engaged in agricultural research, especially those working in socio-economic and policy research and natural resource management in rainfed areas. It will be useful for selecting rainfed regions/ low productivity regions for sample/case studies. The database also aims at meeting information needs of planners and research administrators. We tried to add value to the existing compilations of data in terms of appropriate quality checks and validation. This database also brings together various sources of data for users’ convenience and also lists the districts covered under DPAP/ DDP etc. We belive that the planners and researchers will fi nd this information useful. The authors acknowledge with thanks for mutual sharing of data on certain aspects by Dr. P. Parthasarathy Rao, ICRISAT, Hyderabad. We greatly owe to State Directorates of Economics and Statistics and Special Data Dissemination Standard Division, Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, India Meteorological Department and Fertiliser Association of India. The authors acknowledge the support received from the project ‘National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture’ in carrying out this work.