Agriculture

Purba Barddhaman is the only district in the state of West Bengal that is fortunate both in industry and agriculture. On an average about 58 percent of the total population belongs to the agricultural population while the non agricultural sector accounts for the remaining 42 percent.

The eastern, northern, southern and central areas of the district are extensively cultivated but the soil of the western portion being of extreme lateritic type is unfit for cultivation except in the narrow valleys and depressions having rich soil and good moisture. The cultivation in the district has improved since 1953 with the implementation of the irrigation projects undertaken by the Damodar Valley Corporation. Up to 1953 the cultivation was entirely dependent on the monsoon, and irrigation facilities were rather inadequate and more or less primitive. The position has since been changed and an all-round agricultural development has become possible. Though agriculture is largely regulated by rainfall as in the other districts of the state, the developing irrigation system has been very helpful in minimizing the effects of the vagaries of nature.

Rice is the most important crop of the district and in the alluvial plains to the east little else is grown. The rice grown with its numerous varieties can broadly grouped under the three primary classes distinguished from one another by distinct characteristics and there are : The Aus or autumn, the Aman or winter and the Boro or the summer rice. Paddy covers maximum of the gross cropped area. Among commercial crops Jute, Mesta and Sugarcane, potato, oil seeds are cultivated in marginal area