Agriculture
Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people of the state. It contributed around 18.7% to the state’s gross domestic state product (GSDP) in 2009–10. Majority of the state population are cultivators and agricultural labours. Rice is considered to be the principal food crop of West Bengal. West Bengal is the largest producer of rice in India with an annual output of around 15 million tonnes. Rice, potato, jute, sugarcane and wheat are the top five crops of the state. Other major food crops include maize, pulses, oil seeds, wheat, barley, and vegetables. The state supplies nearly 66% of the jute requirements of India. Tea is another important cash crop. Darjeeling is famous for tea plantation.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of West Bengal
Famous quotes containing the word agriculture:
“But the nomads were the terror of all those whom the soil or the advantages of the market had induced to build towns. Agriculture therefore was a religious injunction, because of the perils of the state from nomadism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In past years, the amount of money that has had to be been spent on armaments, great and small, instead of on productive industry and agriculture and the arts, has been a disgrace to all of us in every part of the world.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)