Department of Agricultural Economics, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur - 522034, Andhra Pradesh
*Corresponding author: areefmulla009@gmail.com
Online published on 22 February, 2021.
An attempt is made in the present study to analyze growth rates and instability of annual rainfall and sources of irrigation, Simpson diversification indices calculated to know the extent of crop diversification and Markov chain analysis was employed to know the area shifts of onion under irrigation and unirrigation facility in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. The analysis was carried out from 2001-02 to 2018-19 and the results revealed that the districts with highest area under irrigation facility showed more crop diversification when compared with other districts of Rayalaseema region. Chittoor district was reported with high crop diversification and Ananthapuramu with low crop diversification. The Chittoor district analysis revealed that retention of onion previous year area share was 37.44 % and remaining districts showed no retention of previous year area share under overall gross cropped area. The present study suggests that to accelerate the pace of diversification from cereals to vegetable crops and commercial crops in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, steps need to be taken to improve rural infrastructure such as irrigation and marketing facilities.
