Agriculture Department

The district forms the northern edge of the chhotanagpur plateau. Its climate is moderately hot and humid. The average rain fall is 1192 mm and the temperature ranges from 4˚c in winter to 42˚c in summer. The soil is mostly lateritie with the patches of clay soil. In lateritie soil the crop production is restricted to paddy whereas in the clay soil area wheat, potato, radish etc

Topography of the district is hilly. Upland covers major part of cultivable land, but due to inadequate irrigation facility only one crop namely paddy is grown, however multi cropping pattern is adopted in a few area

Majority of the population is dependent upon agriculture. The average size of holding is very small land holding. In absence of adequate irrigation facility, farmers are dependent on monsoon rain for agriculture work. So they get employment in agriculture for part of the year and remain unemployed for rest of the year. Due to lateritie nature of soil average crop production is very low. Total area under forest is 53841 hectares. While Sal trees constitute the major forest plantation area, the other important trees are Simul, Palas, Mahua etc. Certain activities like picking kendua-patta, making of plates from sakhua leaves provide sustenance to the poor people.