Agricultural Infrastructure and Agricultural Efficiency Index: A Case of Gujarat Agriculture

Abstract

Background: Gujarat is a diversified Agricultural Economy. The State agricultural economy has witnessed a shift towards high value crops like cotton, groundnuts, fruits, vegetables, condiments and spices from low value cereals and other crops. The Agricultural Growth table at 9.6% was catch the national wide attention, the one cause behind it was improvement in Agricultural infrastructure which leads to increase agricultural efficiency. Methods: To examination of agricultural infrastructure and agricultural efficiency in Gujarat at the district level for the years 2009-10 and 2019-20 was conducted. The study involved the estimation of Agricultural Infrastructure Index (AII) using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which considered eleven variables related to agricultural infrastructure to unveil disparities within the districts. Additionally, an Agricultural Efficiency Index (AEI) was also calculated to discern trends in agricultural efficiency at a disaggregated level in Gujarat. Results: The revealed that the Agriculture Infrastructure Index (AII) highlighted improvements in the positions of Banskantha, Sabarnaktha, Rajkot and Junagadh in comparison to their 2009-10  AII rankings. Furthermore, the findings related to agricultural efficiency indicated that Rajkot district exhibited a remarkable leap in 2019-20 when compared to its position in 2009-10.