There are Government Nurseries for horticultural crops operating in different locations such

There are Government Nurseries for horticultural crops operating in different locations such as coconut nurseries in Balia and Jaleswar; vegetable and fruit seedlings in Soro, Jaleswar, Bhograi Bhograi, Nilagiri, Mitrapur and a canning centre in Balasore. (District Administration, Balaosre 2011-12).6.1.6 Cropping pattern and crop combination 6.1.6.1 Cropping pattern Understanding cropping pattern is highly important for a rural area to formulate agricultural plans to reduce agricultural disparities. As stated by M.Hussain, (2007) “ cropping pattern means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time.” Actually cropping pattern reflects the geo-physical, socio-cultural, economic, political, factors significantly. Crop Concentration(CC) may be measured as- (Bhatia,1965). (Area of X crop in the component areal unit / Area of all crops in the component areal unit)(Area of X crop in the entire region / Area of all crops in the entire region)Actually the district is mainly under paddy cultivation so Crop Concentration has been calculated both for Kharif, and Rabi seasons and finally the total area under paddy for 2010-11 year. Hence it can be stated that throughout the district subsistence cultivation is in practice. In the coastal, hilly as well as in the alluvial plain winter rice or Kharif cultivation is the primary occupation. Lack of irrigation or its unsatisfactory application makes other crop cultivation difficult. So throughout the Rabi season, all the paddy fields are left fallow and used as grazing lands. Rabi cultivation is most common in different blocks like Bhograi, Simulia, Jaleswar, Baliapal etc. The developed irrigation status is the main cause behind this. Except inland location the lands beside rivers are also used for Rabi cultivation as irrigation water is available. In Simulia block recently mustard cultivation has been initiated in Rabi season by Gram Panchayat Department. Traditionalism is a hindrance. The failure of crops leads to the loss of interest of the farmers. So if an alternate crop is found a new cropping pattern may emerge. The application of HYV seeds could intensify the status. Though HYV Swarna rice is cultivated, rainfall fluctuation is the main factor that restricts or interrupts its production. However the cultivation of other remunerative crops helps the cultivators to become flexible. This is mainly found in some specific areas located beside rivers or having irrigation facility.6.1.4.2 Crop combination: Crop combination not only displays the variability of crops with significant percentage of the cropped area but also helps to plan the agricultural pattern In Balasore district predominance of paddy is the main characteristic related with agro economy. After Weaver (1954) different methods were implemented by Doi(1959), Thomas (1963), Rafiullah (1965).But all these suffer from different shortfalls so a new method has been provided by.R.B Mandal (1990). In this method all minute crop shares are included and their ranks of distinctiveness, according to the percentage of the crops, are calculated, to extract the combination. The formula used for the calculation of the crop combination as follows- C.C = Hp/1-1 = 1st ranking crop, Hp/2-2= 2nd ranking crop, Hp/3-3= 3rd ranking crop, Hp/4-4= 4th ranking crop. Where C.C is the crop combination and Hp is the highest percentage of a crop in the study area. 1,2,3,4 are denominators for crops of a particular rank and -1,-2,-3,-4 are diversity index for crops of low percentage. The area under different crops in 2008-09 has been used for crop combination of the district. Block level area under paddy, wheat, maize, vegetables, spices, pulses, oilseed, sugarcane, fibre are used for the purpose. It is found that almost in all the blocks paddy is the first ranking crop. Vegetable is the third ranking crop in Oupada and Remuna and vegetable is the fourth ranking crop of Baliapal, Basta, Jaleswar and Nilagiri blocks. In Baliapal block oilseed is also a fourth ranking crop and in Jaleswar block pulse is also a fourth ranking crop. No second ranking crop is found in any of the blocks.C.C = Hp/1-1 = 1st ranking crop, Hp/2-2= 2nd ranking crop, Hp/3-3= 3rd ranking crop, Hp/4-4= 4th ranking crop. Where C.C is the crop combination and Hp is the highest percentage of a crop in the study area. 1,2,3,4 are denominators for crops of a particular rank and -1,-2,-3,-4 are diversity index for crops of low percentage. The area under different crops in 2008-09 has been used for crop combination of the district. Block level area under paddy, wheat, maize, vegetables, spices, pulses, oilseed, sugarcane, fibre are used for the purpose. It is found that almost in all the blocks paddy is the first ranking crop. Vegetable is the third ranking crop in Oupada and Remuna and vegetable is the fourth ranking crop of Baliapal, Basta, Jaleswar and Nilagiri blocks. In Baliapal block oilseed is also a fourth ranking crop and in Jaleswar block pulse is also a fourth ranking crop. No second ranking crop is found in any of the blocks.In Kharif 2008-09, on an average 13667.2 ha area was under HYV paddy in the district that was almost 64.93 % of the total cropped area. The local paddy is very significant but after the implementation of HYV paddy the impact of local paddy has reduced. The dominance of paddy is the main characteristics of the district. Vast alluvial plain and its subsistence nature help to select paddy as a first ranking Kharif crop. Maximum of the paddy fields remain fallow but with very limited irrigation source vegetable, groundnut, moong, chilli, mustard, biri etc are cultivated. So various crop combinations are found in different blocks of the district in the Rabi season. In Rabi season the combination of crops gets a little bit complicated as oilseeds, fibres, and vegetables share a limited amount of land. The rank based crop distribution is as followsAlmost all the blocks have different crop combinations in the Rabi season. A correlation has been calculated between the rank coefficient of physical parameters and crop combination of Rabi season (2008-09) to find out whether crop combination increases with physical constraints (Table 6.32).The regression value becomes 0.2 representing a poor positive relation between these two variables. But in Kharif season (2008-09) there is no relation within these variables as mono cropping system6.1.6 Agricultural Efficiency: According to Mondal(1990), agricultural efficiency is the productivity of a particular unit of land in food grains. This helps to find out the inherent fertility of the land, productivity and capability of the land. There are number of factors that can influence agricultural efficiency. Among them, lack of irrigation facility, underdeveloped farming system, low use of technologies, underuse or over use of the agricultural lands are most important. In Balasore district monopoly of paddy cultivation is a significant problem. The method applied by the Directorate of Statistics and Evaluation, Government of Bihar, in 1972 was applied to calculate agriculture efficiency. Mondal(1990) has suggested this alternative method by applying the method of locational coefficient. In the aspect of dominance of paddy cultivation, agricultural efficiency, specifically highlighting on paddy, has been calculated. Data on net sown area and total paddy production has been collected from the District Satistical Handbook 2011. At first per hectare production of paddy has been taken and each block wise data has been subdivided by the total district and as a result the locational quotient has been found. In the same way the locational coefficient has been calculated for net sown area. Bhograi, Simulia, Jaleswar and Khaira blocks haves maximum paddy production efficiency and Bahanaga, has lesser agricultural efficiency among all the blocks.6.1.6.1 Efficient zones for winter paddy: It is noted that the dominance of paddy is the main characteristic of agriculture of Balasore. The Relative Spread Index and Relative Yield Index have been calculated by applying Kanwar (1972) method. On the basis of Relative Spread Index and Relative Yield Index most efficient blocks for winter paddy have been calculated and on the basis of the ARSI and ARYI combination most efficient cropping zones are found. The variability of winter paddy is not quite significant. The block wise variability of average ARSI lies between 6.2% to 114%. In Nilagiri (99.4%) and Oupada (114%) highest variability of ARSI is found for winter paddy. The least variability is found in Jaleswar (6.2%) and Simulia blocks (6.6%) (Appendix: 6.20). ARSI is highest in Oupada block i.e. 211.06 and lowest in Bhograi block i.e. 86.18. The variability of the Relative Yield Index of winter paddy shows variability range of 7.5% for Remuna block to 58.2% for Soro block. After Soro the highest variability is found in Bahanaga block i.e. 36.7% and Simulia block i.e.34.8%. Except Remuna next lowest variability is found for Jaleswar block i.e. 12.2% and Khaira block i.e. 19.9%. The Relative yield Index is highest for Simulia block and Lowest for Balasore block (Appendix: 6.20). On the basis of the available and calculated data the efficient zones have been extracted. The RSI are categorized as 150= High RSI. Similarly RYI are categorized as 100= High RYI. For simplification of the zones >100 ARSI is considered as High efficient, and