Fading Glory of West Bengal Agriculture in the Context of Globalization: Need for a Change in Cropping Pattern

West Bengal emerged as one the progressive agriculturally developed states in India during the period of 1980s. Mainly, land reforms policy of the government coupled with HYV seeds technology and better farming practices placed the agriculture of the state to a high growth path during this period. However, during the globalization period of nineties and thereafter, the growth of agriculture of the state declined significantly due to sudden fall in productivity growth rate. The existing farming practices do not provide further support to the agricultural development of the state. The state needs to diversify its cropping pattern towards the high-valued commercial cash crops to regain its high growth of the agricultural sector .