कृषि

                Chhattisgarh is known as the "rice bowl" of India. Chhattisgarh used to produce over seventy percent of the total paddy production in the state. Apart from paddy, cereals like maize, kodo-kutki and other small millets, pulses like tur and kulthi and oilseeds like groundnut, soyabean, niger and sunflower are also grown. Chhattisgarh produced nearly half of all food grains, and one third of all major crops grown in the undivided Madhya Pradesh during the kharif season. The main rabi crops of Chhattisgarh are jowar, gram, urad, mong and moth. Chhattisgarh produces 45 percent of the jower and over eighty percent of the gram produced in undivided Madhya Pradesh. Chhattisgarh produces very little wheat. In pulses, a quarter of all produce in Madhya Pradesh during the rabi season comes from Chhattisgarh.

                 In the mid nineties, most of Chhattisgarh was still a mono-crop belt. Only one fourth to one fifth of the sown area was double cropped. When a very substantial portion of the population is dependent on agriculture, a situation where nearly 80 percent of a states area is covered only by mono cropping needs immediate attention to turn them into double crop areas. Also there are very few cash crops grown in Chhattisgarh, and there is a need to diversify the agriculture produce towards oilseeds and other cash crops.

                 The total agriculture production taken from two years can give some idea of the general share between Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. In 1995-96, out of a total agricultural production of 180.73 lakh metric tonnes, Chhattisgarh produced 54.09 lakh tonnes or 29.9 percent. The total gross value of agricultural output of undivided Madhya Pradesh was Rs. 18023 crores, of which Chhattisgarh produced Rs. 4102 crores or 22.8 percent. In 1997-98, out of the total agricultural production of undivided Madhya Pradesh of 252.19 lakh tonnes, valued at Rs. 28362 crores, Chhattisgarh produced 60.53 lakhs tonnes or 24 percent valued at Rs. 6854 crores or 24.2 percent. The land under cultivation in Chhattisgarh is around 5800-6000 hectares which is around 23-24 percent of the total area cultivated in undivided Madhya Pradesh