mapping agricultural research in west bengal-1993–2007: a bibliometric study

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Mapping Agricultural Research in WestBengal-1993–2007: A Bibliometric studyNitai RayChoudhury a & Juran Krishna Sarkhel ba Librarian, City College , Kolkata , West Bengal , 700 009 , India E-mail:b Professor, Department of Library and Information Science ,University of Kalyani , West Bengal , IndiaPublished online: 04 Jun 2013.

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COLLNET JOURNAL OF SCIENTOMETRICS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 5(1) JUNE 2011 99

Nitai RayChoudhuryLibrarian, City CollegeKolkata – 700 009West BengalIndia

[email protected]

Juran Krishna SarkhelProfessor, Department ofLibrary and Information ScienceUniversity of KalyaniWest BengalIndia

Mapping Agricultural Research in West Bengal-1993-2007: A Bibliometric study

Nitai RayChoudhuryJuran Krishna Sarkhel

Agricultural research in West Bengal, as seen from CAB Abstracts for a 15-year period from 1993-2007is quantifi ed and mapped. Research-ers from 303 institutions located in 45 cities/towns have authored 10417 papers in 1178 journals published from 53 countries and other literary forms. The result shows that there has been a topsy-turvy growth in the research publication during the period. Top 50 journals with 30 or more papers have only 8 foreign journals. Institutions publishing large num-ber of papers in diff erent areas are identifi ed. The authorship pattern shows the trends towards collaborative research. Potential areas of agri-culture are also identifi ed. This macroscopic analysis not only provides an insight in to the Bengal’s publication scenario, but also gives an idea of indigenous research capacity.

Keywords: Agriculture, West Bengal, bibliometric analysis.

1. Introduction

History of agriculture is the history of evolution of man-

kind. India is essentially an agricultural country with over

3/4th of its population living in rural areas and depends

on agriculture and related occupations. Agriculture con-

tributes nearly half of the national income and provides

employment to about 70% of the working population in

India (Randhawa [1]). An, agriculture-dependent state,

West Bengal occupies only 2.7% of the India’s land area,

though it supports over 7.8% of the Indian population [2].

The agriculture in West Bengal is one of the most signifi -

cant means to earn livelihood especially in the rural sector

and 70% of the state’s population depends on it. Revered

William Carey initiated agricultural research in Bengal by

establishing Agri-Horticultural Society in 1820. Agricul-

tural education in Bengal started in 1898 at Civil Engineer-

ing College, Howrah (Mukherjee et al. [3]). This paper aims

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COLLNET JOURNAL OF SCIENTOMETRICS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 5(1) JUNE 2011100

Mapping agricultural research in West Bengal-1993-2007: A bibliometric study

to map agricultural research in Bengal as refl ected in the publications that came out during

1993-2007 and indexed in CAB Abstracts using standard techniques of scientometrics.

2. Objectives

The general objective of the study is to focus light on agricultural research scenario of

West Bengal. The specifi c objectives are to examine the followings:

(1) To fi nd out volume of work published during 1993-2007;

(2) To identify journals used to publish research work and their rank;

(3) To furnish country-wise distribution of journals;

(4) To assess publication of papers in ranked journals;

(5) To locate various categories of institutions undertaking agricultural research;

(6) To draw authorship pattern;

(7) To highlight potential areas of research.

3. Methodology

Allan Pritchard coined the term bibliometrics in the late 1960s to describe the manifes-

tation of statistically signifi cant recorded information (Bellis [4]). Bibliometrics studies can

be applied to any discipline to fi nd out trends and growth of the literature (Manjunath &

Iqbalahmad [5]. CAB Abstracts of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International

(CABI) covers all aspects of agriculture, forestry and allied disciplines (Arunachalam &

Umarani[6]). The papers indexed and abstracted in the CD-ROM version of CAB Abstracts

from 1993 to 2007 have been selected for this study. The bibliographic records have been

downloaded from the database by searching specifi c terms. The downloaded fi elds were

title; author; author’s address; source publication; publisher; publication type and subject

heading. The search was made in two ways – one by using names of institutes and another

by using names of towns, cities and districts of West Bengal. More than 45 numbers of

towns, cities and districts have been used as search terms. Diff erent spellings, such as, Kol-

kata and Calcutta, have been used to retrieve maximum records. CAB Abstracts provides

the address of only one author even if a paper has many authors, and therefore, we have

missed institutional collaborative eff orts. The resultant fi elds with their bibliographic in-

formation in the text format have then been standardized and transferred in to the spread-

sheet format for analysis by using various functions of software programme (Arunachalam

& Umarani [6]). The duplicate records were identifi ed and deleted. The refi ned unique

data was subjected to appropriate analysis.

4. Analysis

The researchers of West Bengal have published 10417 papers in various literary forms

for the 15-year period from 1993-2007. The following sections portray detailed picture as

retrieved from the database.

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Nitai RayChoudhury and Juran Krishna Sarkhel

4.1. Chronological distribution of published literature

The quantum of research publications in journals, conferences, books and other lit-

erary forms gives in indication of the growth of the discipline during a specifi c period.

The growth of agricultural research in Bengal can be ascertained by identifying grow-

ing number of publications. Table 1 shows year-wise contribution in the form of literary

publication.

It appears from Table 1 that the researchers of Bengal have taken 15 years from 1993 to

2007 to publish 10417 papers. These include 9954 journal articles, 246 conference papers,

139 book/book chapters and others. 24 records (0.33%) have been classifi ed as ‘miscel-

laneous’. Journal articles occupy the major share (95.56%) followed by conference papers,

which contribute 2.36%. Other literary forms contribute only 2.08% of the total output. As

in other fi eld of science and technology, the agriculturists of Bengal prefer the journals as

their fi rst choice. Year 1993 has had 455 publications and 2007 has had 1011 publications,

i.e. an increase of 122.19%. Table 1 shows a non-uniform pattern of research output from

1993 to 2007. Figure 1 indicates a topsy-turvy growth of publication during the period

of study. There has been a decrease in publication in the 4th year, 7th year and 11th year

respectively.

Table 1Year-wise distribution of research publications from 1993 to 2007

Book/ Publication Journal Conference Book Annual Correspo-year articles papers chapters Bulletins Reports Reports ndences Misc. Total

1993 440 10 2 0 0 0 0 3 455

1994 449 13 5 0 1 0 0 3 471

1995 508 74 4 0 2 1 0 6 595

1996 548 1 4 0 1 0 0 1 555

1997 568 5 6 0 0 1 1 1 582

1998 541 24 11 0 0 2 0 6 584

1999 561 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 575

2000 626 0 14 0 0 1 0 13 654

2001 657 18 8 0 0 0 0 0 683

2002 789 19 8 3 0 0 0 0 819

2003 753 3 12 8 0 2 0 0 778

2004 762 11 11 1 0 1 0 0 786

2005 851 4 15 2 0 4 0 0 876

2006 944 29 14 3 0 2 0 1 993

2007 957 28 18 7 0 1 0 0 1011

9954 246 139 24 4 15 1 24 10417

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The fi gure 2 shows that the cumulative growth of publication for 5-year time span is in

rise. The researchers have published 2658 papers, 3315 papers and 4444 papers in 1st, 2nd

and 3rd 5-year time period respectively. There is an addition of 657 publications (24.71%)

between the 1st and the 2nd and an addition of 1129 publications (34.05%) between the 2nd

and the 3rd, i.e. an increase of 9.34%.

4.2. Distribution by journal

Journals are the most important medium for publishing research result without any

loss of time. The publication in peer-reviewed/referred journals is one of the indicators of

the research contribution of the scholars. Table 2 furnishes the journals frequently used by

the researchers to publish their research outcome.

Figure 1Year-wise growth of research publication

Figure 2Cumulative growth of publication for fi ve-year duration

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Table 2Journals used to publish research work (rank is based on number of papers)

NAAS Impact No. of Rating FactorRank Journal Name State Papers 2007 JCR-2008

Indian journals

1 Environment and Ecology West Bengal 1219 2.0 –

2 Journal of Interacademicia West Bengal 643 – –

3 Indian Agriculturist West Bengal 306 3.0 –

4 Journal of Mycopathological Research West Bengal 283 4.0 –

5 Indian Journal of Animal Health West Bengal 270 3.0 –

6 Indian Veterinary Journal Tamil Nadu 152 6.5 0.056

7 Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany Rajasthan 151 – –

8 Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science New Delhi 145 4.0 –

9 Horticultural Journal West Bengal 112 – –

10 Indian Forester Uttaranchal 107 3.0 –

11 Indian Journal of Experimental Biology New Delhi 106 3.0 0.599

12 Crop Research Haryana 105 – –

13 Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences New Delhi 104 7.2 0.088

14 Current Science Karnataka 100 7.8 0.774

15 Indian Journal of Plant Physiology New Delhi 84 4.0 –

16 Records of the Zoological Survey of India West Bengal 82 2.0 –

17 Indian Journal of Agronomy New Delhi 71 6.0 –

18 Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding New Delhi 71 4.0 –

19 Indian Journal of Animal Sciences New Delhi 70 6.8 0.183

20 Journal of the Indian Medical Association West Bengal 68 – –

21 Orissa Journal of Horticulture Orissa 58 – –

22 Journal of Food Science and Technology, Mysore Karnataka 54 – –

23 Annals of Agricultural Research New Delhi 49 1.0 –

24 Indian Journal of Dairy Science New Delhi 48 3.0 –

25 Advances in Plant Sciences. Uttar Pradesh 47 – –

26 Journal of Hill Research Sikim 45 – –

27 Economic Aff airs West Bengal 44 – –

28 Indian Journal of Forestry Uttaranchal 44 4.0 –

(Continued)

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NAAS Impact No. of Rating FactorRank Journal Name State Papers 2007 JCR-2008

Indian journals

29 Research on Crops Haryana 43 – –

30 Journal of Crop and Weed West Bengal 42 – –

31 Insect Environment Karnataka 41 – –

32 Journal of Entomological Research New Delhi 41 2.0 –

33 Journal of Communicable Diseases New Delhi 35 – –

34 Annals of Plant Protection Sciences New Delhi 34 2.0 –

35 Intas Polivet Gujarat 33 – –

36 Journal of Phytological Research Rajasthan 33 – –

37 Journal of Environmental Biology Uttar Pradesh 32 7.2 1.359

38 Journal of Potassium Research Delhi 32 3.0 –

39 Bionotes Uttar Pradesh 31 – –

40 Indian Phytopathology New Delhi 31 4.0 –

41 Indian Journal of Medical Research New Delhi 30 8.2 1.883

42 Journal of Natural History India New Delhi 30 – –

290 other Indian journals 1858

Total 332 Indian journals 6984

NAAS – National Academy of Agricultural Sciences; JCR– Journal Citation Report

NAAS Impact No. of Rating FactorRank Journal Name Country Papers 2007 JCR-2008

Foreign journals

1 Phytotherapy Research UK 84 8.1 1.772

2 Phytochemistry Netherlands 54 8.8 2.946

3 Journal of Ethnopharmacology UK 49 8.4 2.260

4 Acta Horticulturae Belgium 43 3.0

5 Journal of Food Engineering UK 41 8.4 2.081

6 Fitoterapia Netherlands 36 8.0 1.200

7 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology USA 35 7.6 1.609

8 Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Netherlands 34 8.5 1.764

9 Bioresource Technology UK 27 8.6 4.453

10 Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture Netherlands 25 8.0 1.107

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11 Seed Science and Technology Switzerland 25 7.5 0.660

12 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications USA 23 9.0 2.648

13 Biologia Plantarum Czech Republic 23 8.1 1.426

14 Agricultural Water Management Netherlands 22 8.1 1.646

15 Chemosphere UK 22 8.8 3.054

16 Journal–of–Agricultural–and– Food–Chemistry USA 21 8.7 2.562

17 Plant Cell Reports. Germany 20 8.4 1.946

18 Aquaculture Research UK 19 8.1 0.091

19 Cytologia Japan 19 5.0

20 Journal of Biological Chemistry. USA 19 10.0 5.520

21 Journal of Environmental Science and Health USA 19 7.7 –

22 Tropical Agriculture Trinidad & Tobago 18 6.0 –

23 Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology USA 17 8.3 –

24 Phytomedicine Germany 17 8.3 2.330

25 Cytobios UK 16 –

26 Folia Microbiologica Czech Republic 16 8.0 1.172

27 Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria Poland 15 – –

28 Biochemical Journal UK 15 10.0 4.371

29 Food and Chemical Toxicology UK 15 8.7 2.321

817 other foreign journals 2181

Total 846 foreign journals 2970

Total Journals = 332 + 846 = 1178 9954

The researchers have used 1178 journals to publish 9954 papers. These include 332

journals of Indian origin contributing 6984 papers (70.16%) and 846 journals of foreign

origin contributing 2970 papers (29.84%). The journals have been ranked on the basis of

number of papers published. Though the foreign journals are 2.54 times more of Indian

journals, the numbers of papers published in Indian journals are 2.36 times more of foreign

journals. Among 332 Indian journals, 42 journals have published 30 or more papers. The

rest 290 journals have published 1858 papers. Among 846 foreign journals, 29 journals have

published 15 or more papers. The rest 817 journals have published 2181 papers. The fi rst

42 Indian journals contribute 73.36% of Indian publications and fi rst 29 foreign journals

contribute 26.56% of foreign publications. Top 50 journals in which the researchers have

published 30 or more papers include only 8 foreign journals: Phytotherapy Research, 16th

rank, 84 papers; Photochemisty, 23rd rank, 54 papers; Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 24th

rank’ 49 papers; Acta Horticulturae, 29th rank, 43 papers, Journal of Food Engineering,

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33rd rank, 41 papers; Fitoterapia, 35th rank, 36 papers; Bulletin of Environmental Con-

tamination and Toxicology, 33rd rank, 35 papers; Molecular and Cellular Biology, 35th

rank, 34 papers. The researchers have used journals of diff erent disciplines, agricultural

sciences (26.23%), biological sciences (34.21%), medical sciences (14.52%), chemical sci-

ences (6.79%), science & technology (6.03%), environmental sciences (5.69%), engineering

(1.44%) and other disciplines (5.09%) to publish their research work. This indicates the

interdisciplinary nature of agricultural sciences. Fourteen journals have published 100 or

more papers (3803 papers, 38.21%); 10 journals have published 50 or more but less than 100

(696 papers, 6.99%); 37 journals have published 25 or more but less than 50 (1297 papers,

13.03%); 116 journals have published 10 or more but less than 25 (1732 papers, 17.40%);

320 journals have published 3 or more but less than 10 (1552 papers, 15.59%). At the other

extreme, 488 journals have published just one paper each (4.90%) and 193 journals have

published 02 papers each (386 papers, 3.88%). Among Indian journals Environment and

Ecology has maximum number of 1219 papers. Among foreign journals Phytotherapy

Research of United Kingdom has maximum number of 84 papers. Top 42 Indian jour-

nals include 24 journals (57.14%) with NAAS Rating and 07 journals (16.66%) with Im-

pact Factor. Top 29 foreign journals include 27 journals (93.10%) with NAAS Rating and

22 journals (75.86%) with Impact Factor. Journal of Biological Chemistry and Biochemi-

cal Journal, both are of foreign origin, have the highest NAAS Rating of 10.0. Journal of

Biological Chemistry is the highest Impact Factor (5.520) journal. The researchers have used

6 advances to publish 74 papers, 13 letter journals to publish 57 papers and 9 newsletters

to publish 23 papers. All the advances are of Indian origin and not indexed by the NAAS.

The advances, letter journals and newsletters have occupied 0.71%, 0.54% and 0.23% of the

total output respectively.

4.3. Distribution of journals by country of origin

Table 3 furnishes the country-wise publication of journals. The researchers of West

Bengal have used 1178 journals from 53 countries to publish 9954 papers. They have used

846 foreign journals from 52 countries to publish 2970 papers (29.84%). Among the foreign

journals, UK occupies the highest position with 893 papers (8.97%) followed by USA with

621 papers (6.24%). Among Asian countries, Japan occupies the highest position with 78

papers (0.78%) followed by Pakistan with 42 papers (0.42%). Unlike in physics, chemistry,

medicine and mathematics, most papers are published in Indian journals [6].

4.4. Classifi cation of journals by NAAS Rating

National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) assigns credits to scientifi c jour-

nals corresponding to grade as recommended by the Journal Rating Committee of the

Academy. It appears from Table 4 that 626 journals have not been covered in the NAAS

Rating 2007, which is 53.14% of the total journals. The papers published in these journals

have found to be 3388, which is 34.04% of the total output. It shows that 14.80% papers

have been published in journals with rating between 2 and 2.9. This is followed by 13.16%

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with rating between 8 and 8.9; 13.02% with rating between 3 and 3.9; 09.18% with rating

between 4 and 4.9; 7.37% with rating between 7 and 7.9; 3.58% with rating between 6 and

6.9; 2.28% with rating between 1 and 1.9; 0.98% with rating between 9 and 9.9 and 0.40%

with rating between 5 and 5.9. Only 27 journals having the NAAS Rating 10.0 have pub-

lished 118 papers (1.19%).

4.5. Institution-wise publication of papers

Three hundred three institutions located in Bengal have published 10325 papers, which

are worthy of to be indexed in the CAB Abstracts during 1993 to 2007. Table 5 furnishes

the list of fi rst 25 institutions having publications of more than 50 papers. Top 25 institutes

contribute 8893 papers (86.37%) comprising of 3 agricultural universities with 3573 papers

(36.03%); 7 general universities with 2612 papers (25.07%); 6 research institutes with 1073

Table 3Country-wise publication of journals (arranged on the basis of number of papers)

Sl. No. Country No. of journals No. of papers % [total papers = 9954]

1 India 332 6984 70.16

2 UK 228 893 8.97

3 USA 199 621 6.24

4 Netherlands 114 530 5.32

5 Germany 58 201 2.02

6 Japan 26 78 0.78

7 Poland 14 51 0.51

8 Czech Republic 3 47 0.47

9 Belgium 2 44 0.44

10 Pakistan 19 42 0.42

11 Switzerland 11 38 0.38

12 Australia 19 37 0.37

13 Italy 13 30 0.30

14 China 11 25 0.25

15 Kenya 4 23 0.23

16 Hungary 6 23 0.23

17 Bangladesh 8 22 0.22

18 Thailand 10 22 0.22

19 France 11 21 0.21

34 other countries 90 222 2.23

Total journal papers 1178 9954

Non-journals papers 463

Total publications 10417

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Table 4Distribution of journals & papers by NAAS Rating (2007)

Sl. No. NAAS Rating No. of Journals [Total = 1178] % No. of Papers [Total = 9954] %

1 000 626 53.14 3388 34.04

2 ≥1.0 – <2.0 30 2.55 227 2.28

3 ≥2.0 – <3.0 20 1.70 1473 14.80

4 ≥3.0 – <4.0 50 4.24 1296 13.02

5 ≥4.0 – <5.0 41 3.48 914 9.18

6 ≥5.0 – <6.0 9 0.76 40 0.40

7 ≥6.0 – <7.0 12 1.02 356 3.58

8 ≥7.0 – <8.0 106 9.00 734 7.37

9 ≥8.0 – <9.0 225 19.10 1310 13.16

10 ≥9.0 – <10.0 32 2.72 98 0.98

11 ≥ 10.0 27 2.29 118 1.19

Non journal item – 463

1178 10417

Table 5Rank of Institutions (based on number of papers)

Rank Institute No. of papers % [Total Paper = 10417]

1 Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya 2807 26.95

2 University of Calcutta 953 9.15

3 West Bengal University of Animal and Fisheries Science 721 6.92

4 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 612 5.88

5 University of Kalyani 382 3.67

6 Bose Institute 369 3.54

7 Visva - Bharati University 350 3.36

8 Indian Institute of Chemical Biology 349 3.35

9 Jadavpur University 346 3.32

10 Burdwan University 328 3.15

11 Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya 225 2.16

12 Zoological Survey of India 176 1.69

13 Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres 168 1.61

14 Botanical Survey of India 161 1.55

15 North Bengal University 159 1.53

16 Indian Statistical Institute 149 1.43

(Continued)

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17 Vidyasagar University 94 0.90

18 Presidency College 90 0.86

19 Darjeeling Government College 89 0.85

20 National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases 71 0.68

21 School of Tropical Medicine 67 0.64

22 Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute 64 0.61

23 State Animal Health Centre 58 0.56

24 Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research 53 0.51

25 Indian Veterinary Research Institute 52 0.50

278 other institutions 1432 13.75

Home Address 45 0.43

Miscellaneous and incomplete address 47 0.45

Total 10417

papers (10.30%); 2 institutes of special status with 761 papers (7.31%); 2 survey organiza-

tions with 337 papers (3.24%); 2 colleges with 179 papers(1.72%); 2 medical institutions

with 120 papers (1.15%) and 1 state animal health centre with 58 papers (0.56%). Schol-

ars without having any institutional aff iliation have published 92 papers (0.88%). Bidhan

Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalay occupies the highest position with 2807 papers (26.95%)

followed by University of Calcutta with 953 papers (9.15%) and West Bengal University

of Animal and Fisheries Science with 721 papers (6.92%). Sixteen institutions have pub-

lished 100 or more papers (79.95%); 9 institutions have published between 50 - 99 papers

(6.18%); 10 institutions have published between 25 – 49 papers (3.64%); 20 institutes have

published between 10 – 24 papers (2.78%); 105 institutes have published between 03 -09

papers (5.07%). At the extreme, 103 institutes have published 2 papers each (2.00%) and 40

institutes have published 1 paper each (0.39%).

4.6. Publication of papers by diff erent types of institutions

In West Bengal various kinds of institutions off er agricultural education and research

(Table 6). Out of 303 institutions, there are 111 academic institutions contributing 7682

papers (73.74%); 51 research institutions contributing 1447 papers (13.89%); 29 central gov-

ernment institutions contributing 464 papers (4.45%); 35 medical institutions and hospitals

contributing 386 papers (3.71%); 34 state government institutions contributing 211 papers

(2.03%); 41 societies and NGOs contributing 131 papers (1.26%) and 2 international orga-

nizations contributing 4 papers (0.04%). Table 6 with attached fi gures shows quantum of

publications of academic and research institutions. Out of 111 academic institutes, 3 agri-

cultural universities contribute 3753 papers (48.45%). This is followed by 10 universities of

higher education department contributing 2308 papers (30.04%); 3 institutes with special

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status contributing 770 papers (10.02%); 93 colleges contributing 487 papers (6.34%) and 2

central universities contributing 364 papers (4.74%). Out of 51 research institutes, 9 central

govt. institutes contribute 496 papers (34.28%). This is followed by 15 ICAR institutes con-

tributing 418 papers (28.89%); 3 CSIR institutes contributing 357 papers (24.67%); 3 ICMR

institutes contributing 74 papers (5.11%); 7 state govt. institutes contributing 52 papers

(3.59%) and 14 other institutes including NGOs contributing 50 papers (3.46%).

4.7. Authorship Pattern

Study of authorship is an important indication of collaborative research. Agriculture is

interdisciplinary in nature and calls for team research from diff erent branches of sciences.

Table 7 shows the participation of scholars towards collaborative research. Joint authors

have contributed highest 3986 papers (38.26%). This is followed by three authors (30.59%);

four authors (15.83%) and fi ve or more authors (7.45%). Single authors have contributed

only 819 papers (07.86%).

Table 6Types of institutions and quantum of publications

Types of institutions No. Paper %

1 Academic institutions 111 7682 73.74

2 Research institutions 51 1447 13.89

3 Central Govt. institution 29 464 4.45

4 Medical institutes & hospitals 35 386 3.71

5 State Govt. institution 34 211 2.03

6 Societies & Private organizations 41 131 1.26

7 International organizations 2 4 0.04

8 Others 92 0.88

303 10417

ICAR – Indian Council of Agricultural Research; CSIR – Council of Scientifi c and Industrial Research; ICMR – Indian Council of Medical Research.

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4.8. Distribution by sub-fi eld

CAB Abstracts classifi es papers into more than one subspecialty. The 10417 papers are

classifi ed under 309 sub-fi elds. Analyzing these sub-fi elds has identifi ed potential areas of

agricultural sciences. The research publications in specifi c areas being undertaken by the

researchers of Bengal having more than 300 occurrences have shown in Table 8. Amongst

25 thrust areas, plant production has the highest occurrence of 2069 publications (19.86%).

Horticultural Crops has occupied the 2nd (1427 papers) position. In Biotechnology, there

were only 141 papers.

5. Conclusion

CAB Abstracts is a good source of information to agricultural research in India. Ag-

riculture, encompassing crop and animal husbandry, horticulture, forestry and agro-for-

estry, inland and marine fi sheries and agro-processing, is the major determinant of the

livelihood destiny of nearly 700 million people of India (Jayashree & Arunachalam [7]).

Experts like M. S. Swaminathan argue in favour of ushering in what they call the ‘ever-

green revolution’ to ensure food production at levels that can take care of the food and

nutrition security of the growing population and adopting policies that are friendly to the

local farming communities (Swaminathan [8]). Agriculture in its broadest sense remains

the most important sector of the society even though its contribution to economy might

have declined (Sinha [9]). Lester Brown of the World Resource Institute has warned that

by 2030 both China and India may have to import quantities of food unheard of in his-

tory – 240 million tonnes for China and 40 million tonnes for India (Brown [10]). Can the

Indian agricultural research establishment prove him wrong? Under these circumstances,

the progress of agriculture in West Bengal plays an important role in the India’s economic

and political future. This study has portrayed an in insight in to the agricultural research

scenario of one of the important states of India.

The study has highlighted various bibliometric measures that can be used to under-

stand the agricultural research scenario of Bengal. This paper has identifi ed potential in-

stitutions, the areas in which they are active and the journals in which they publish their

Table 7Authorship pattern

Authorship Papers % [Total papers 10417]

Single author 819 07.86

Double authors 3986 38.26

Three authors 3187 30.59

Four authors 1649 15.83

Five or more authors 776 7.45

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work. While there has been much activity in the areas of plant production and crop man-

agement, there were only 141papers in the area of biotechnology. West Bengal appears to

be slow in catching up this rather important area. It would be benefi cial if researchers of

agricultural sciences and biotechnology work together. The study, we hope, would help in

assessing Bengal’s contributions to the world literature on agricultural sciences and allied

areas. It would be worthwhile to make grants to non-agricultural university departments

Table 8Potential subject areas and their quantum of publications

Sl. No. Subject-areas No. of papers % [Total Articles = 10417]

1 Plant Production 2069 19.86

2 Horticultural Crops 1427 13.70

3 Soil Water Management Irrigation and Drainage 1198 11.50

4 Plant Breeding and Genetics 1187 11.39

5 Soil Morphology Formation and Classifi cation 1139 10.93

6 Field Crops 1138 10.92

7 Fertilizers and other Amendments 1022 9.81

8 Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 825 7.92

9 Non food Non feed Plant Products 676 6.49

10 Crop Produce 533 5.12

11 Forests and Forest Trees Biology and Ecology 531 5.10

12 Plant Composition 484 4.65

13 Pesticides and Drugs Control 474 4.55

14 Food Composition and Quality 470 4.51

15 Plant Pests 464 4.45

16 Soil Chemistry and Mineralogy 413 3.96

17 Pests Pathogens and Biogenic Diseases of Plants 404 3.88

18 Viral Bacterial and Fungal Diseases of Plants 403 3.87

19 Prion Viral Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens of Humans 399 3.83

20 Pollution and Degradation 341 3.27

21 Agricultural Economics 333 3.20

22 Taxonomy and Evolution 329 3.16

23 Pesticides and Drugs General 324 3.11

24 Soil Biology 324 3.11

25 Aquatic Biology and Ecology 307 2.95

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and colleges that have a good record of research. Agriculture, particularly, fi sheries and

aquaculture being an active trade, private organizations and entrepreneurs should also

play a major role in supporting research. There are both, internal and externals threats to

our agricultural progress. To improve the productivity, profi tability, stability and sustain-

ability of the major farming system, we need to strengthen both research and policy on

agriculture.

This study has had the limitations of being unable to comment on international collabo-

ration as the database does not provide address of all authors. We have not gone beyond

the literature indicators. Ideally, one should have seen literature based indicators in con-

junction with manpower and budgetary data. The future of Bengal’s agriculture depends

on three factors, research, public policy and the farming community’s cooperative action.

The greater the synergy amongst these factors, the better it would be for Bengal and sub-

sequently for India. Scientifi c organizations need to work with farmers and fi shermen to

achieve the goal of ‘food for all’.

References

[1] Randhawa M. S. A History of Agriculture in India. New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricul-

tural Research, Vol. I to IV. 1980.

[2] Development and Planning Department, Govt. of West Bengal, West Bengal Human

Development Report 2004. Kolkata, 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//West_Bengal

[accessed 12 July 2010].

[3] Mukherjee N., Sanyal, S. K., Ghosh, M. R, Mukhopadhyay, A. K. and Mukhopadhyay, A.

History of Agricultural Education in Bengal. Mohanpur: Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidya-

laya, 1998.

[4] Bellis N. D. Bibliometrics and citation analysis: from science citation index to cybermetircs.

Lanhamam: The Scarecrow Press, 2009.

[5] Manjunath B. H, and Iqbalahmad U. R. Applied Engineering in Agriculture: A fi ve year

(2004-2008) citation study. Ann. Lib. Inf. Stud. 57(2), 2010, 140–145.

[6] Arunachalam S. and Umarani K., Mapping Agricultural Research in India: A profi le based

on CAB Abstracts 1998. Curr Sci. 81(8), 2001, 896–906.

[7] Jayashree B. and Arunachalam S., Mapping fi sh research in India. Curr. Sci. 79(5), 2000,

613–620.

[8] Swaminathan, M. S. In: 81st Congress of the Indian Science Congress Association,

New Delhi, 2001.

[9] Sinha, S. K., Education for agriculture in India: time for a change. Curr. Sci. 79(3), 2000,

302–310.

[10] Brown, L. Who will Feed China? Wake-up Call for a Small Planet. New York, W. W. Norton,

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mapping agricultural research in west bengal-1993–2007: a bibliometric study

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