Agricultural growth in Sikkim: Evidence from multiple break unit root test
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56678/iahf-2025.38.03.09Keywords:
Agriculture, Sikkim , Foodgrains, Unit RootAbstract
The agriculture sector of Sikkim has undergone a significant transformation especially in the last two decades. It serves as a key livelihood activity for about 46% of the state’s population while contributing about nine percent to the gross state domestic product (GSDP)
Our study attempts to estimate the growth performance of production and yield of total foodgrains, rice, wheat, maize, pulses, and oilseeds during the period 1981-82 to 2021-22 using modern time series methods allowing for endogenous structural breaks in the growth rates.
We find evidences of significant slow-down in growth rates of productions of all of these crops in the decade of 1990s and in the first decade of new millennium, resulting from decline in area and decline in growth rate of yields of crops like rice, wheat and maize during the decade of 1990s. Area under crops declined further for all of the selected crops in the next two decades, but increase in yield have been observed in the first decade of new century, following the shift toward organic farming in the state, in the cases of maize, pulses and oilseeds.
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