International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Deepak Kumar, Abhinandan Kumar, Amrendra Kumar and Kaushal Kumar Yadav

abstract
Crop diversification is a necessity for agriculture-based economy like Madhya Pradesh since growing of staple food such as cereals alone cannot support the process of economic development and growth. Therefore, the study was done to measure the extent of changes in land utilization pattern, study the shift in cropping pattern, and extent of crop diversification in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh using measures viz. absolute change, relative change, compound growth rate, Herfindahl index and Simpson index of diversification. The land use is under the head of cropping system found to decreased since base year was net cultivated area decreased by (-0.24%), followed by area sown more than once (-2.02%), total cropped area (-1.81%), current fallow (-7.48%), and total Rabi crop crops (-7.76%). The study revealed that among the total crops under study, the relative change in area found to positive for soybean (1176%). On the other hand, the area under Kharif crops shown increase of (44.48%). It is due to the lower value crops were shifted towards higher value crops or higher demanding crops respectively. The highest diversification was found in 2013, where value of Herfindahl index was observed (0.22) and Simpson index of diversification was to be found (0.78).