1Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Geography, Rani Channamma University, Belagavi, Karnataka State, India, E-mail: drhurakadlishiva@gmail.com
2Teacher Fellow, P. G., Dept. of Studies in Geography, Karnatak University Dharwad, Karnataka State, India, E-mail: slchitagar777@rediffmail.com
Online published on 4 January, 2017.
The present paper attempts to measure the disparities in the levels of agricultural development of the talukas of the Malaprabha river basin, Karnataka State. The Malaprabha river basin is one of the natural regions and spread in hilly, northern dry and northern transition zone of agro-climatic regions of state with agriculture being the lifeline activity of the inhabitants. The region experiences significant regional disparities in the overall development in general and the agricultural development in particular. Regional disparities in the study area may be natural due to unequal distribution of natural resources and man-made in the sense of neglect of some regions and preferences for others for investment and infrastructural facilities.
The study has utilized the published sources of data and reports collected from Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Govt. of Karnataka, Directorate of Census Operations in Karnataka, Govt. of India, Bangalore and other related statistical records at taluka level at two points of time i.e. 1973–74 and 2013–14. The taluka has been taken as a smallest unit of study. The findings suggest that, the there is undoubtedly significant disparities, which have extensively affected the various aspects of agricultural development in the talukas of the river basin. The areas having low level of development should be given top priority to development.
