Regional inequalities in the agrarian development of Kerala: a multivariate approach to the causative factors

The regional inequality in agrarian development in Kerala was obtained with the help of composite index based on optimum combination of forty nine indicators by assigning weights to the indicators by the method of principal component analysis. The districts were classified into three groups based on the development and factors affecting the agricultural development across districts obtained by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) technique. The factors namely area under paddy and high yielding varieties (HYVs), net sown area, area under total cereals, rainfall, credit flow from regional rural banks (RRBs), marine fish landing, fertilizer consumption and percentage of coastal line were significantly different across three categories of districts.