Growth and Instability in Area, Production and Productivity of Banana Crop in South Gujarat

Banana is a major fruit crop cultivated in South Gujarat followed by mango. In Gujarat, banana ranks first in production and second in area among fruit crops. The climate of South Gujarat is highly suitable for banana crop. Thus, the area 51.50 % (36142 ha) and production 54.08 % (2493293 MT) of banana crop was highest among the other regions of Gujarat in the year 2018-19. The study was carried out estimated the CAGR and instability index in area, production and productivity of banana crop for a period of 15 years (2004-05 to 2018-19). The exponential function was used to analyze the compound annual growth rate and Cuddy-Della Valle index was used to analyze the instability index. The CAGR was found significantly increasing in area, production and productivity at the rate of 3.07, 4.31 and 1.19 per cent per annum, respectively. Instability index was found between low range (0-15 %) i.e., quite high in area (11.59 %) followed by production (10.95 %) and productivity (3.14 %). The all three variables were found statistically significant.