Crop diversification and area shifts of paddy in coastal region of Andhra Pradesh

An attempt is made in the present study to analyze growth rates and instability of annual rainfall and sources of irrigation. Simpson diversification indices were calculated to know the extent of crop diversification and Markov chain analysis was employed to know area shifts of paddy under irrigated and unirrigated conditions in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh. The mean annual rainfall was below the normal annual rainfall. The area under irrigation provided through project canal showed significant negative growth rates and tube well showed significant positive growth rate. The districts with lower SDI (Simpson Diversification Index) value have higher irrigation intensity value, which clearly indicated that under irrigated conditions crop concentration was very high. All districts showed considerable retention in previous year area share of paddy under irrigation. There is a need to motivate the farmers to diversify the cropping pattern through changes done in major rice-based cropping systems and adoption of water saving technologies.