RAJESWARI, SRAGAMALIKA, V2020-02-102020-02-102019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810142810D5816The present study entitled “An Economic Analysis of Crop shifts in Rayalaseema Region of Andhra Pradesh” was undertaken to study the growth rates of area, production and productivity of major crops, direction of cropping pattern changes, factors influencing the cropping pattern changes and affect of crop shifts on the economy in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. The study was conducted in Rayalaseema region taking it as a primary unit with its four districts viz., Chittoor, Y.S.R Kadapa, Anantapuram and Kurnool as sub-units. Data required for the study were collected from various published and unpublished sources. The data covered a period of 25 years commencing from 1992-93 to 2016-17. In Rayalaseema region, groundnut, chillies, jowar, paddy, ragi, sugarcane and sunflower recorded significant negative area growth. On the other hand, crops like bengalgram, redgram, maize and cotton were found associated with positive significant growth of area. In Chittoor district, all the crops except redgram recorded significant and negative area growth. In Y.S.R Kadapa district area growth rate was the highest for bengalgram followed by cotton, sesamum and redgram. Productivity growth rate was the highest in chillies (7.21 per cent) followed by sesamun (4.43 per cent) and groundnut (1.86 per cent). In Anantapuram district, the important cropgroundnut recorded a negative and non-significant growth rate of 0.69 per cent in area, but the productivity and production were significant. In Kurnool district maize and castor were the crops with highest and next highest area growth rates of 24.40 and 23.51 per cent respectively. Highest xvii significant productivity growth rate of 4.72 per cent per annum was achieved by turmeric closely followed by maize. In Chittoor district other crops were the most stable as revealed by their retention share of 0.9520 followed by groundnut with retention probability of 0.6243.The most unstable crops of Y.S.R Kadapa district were redgram and sesamum while, cotton had highest retention probability of 0.8050 followed by groundnut with retention probability of 0.7624. Bengalgram besides retaining its share of 0.6985 gained from transfer of other crops with a probability of 0.4851. Groundnut was the most stable crop with high retention probability in Anantapuram district. The crops from which groundnut gained were bengalgram, redgram, jowar, chillies and sunflower but with varying transfer probabilities. Greengram, chillies and turmeric were the most unstable crops in Kurnool district, while sunflower and maize were the most stable crops followed by bengalgram, bajra, groundnut, redgram, cotton, paddy and jowar. Area under paddy, groundnut and sugarcane were significantly influenced by rainfall in Rayalaseema region. There was a positive influence of the lagged production of the same crop on the changes in the area of paddy, groundnut, bengalgram, cotton and sugarcane. Positive and significant influence of rainfall was observed on crops like paddy, groundnut and sugarcane. In Chittoor district, lagged price of competing crop significantly influenced the acreage changes in sugarcane. The area under bengalgram, and cotton was significantly influenced by their own lagged prices in Y.S.R Kadapa district. In Anantapuram district rainfall influenced significantly the area under crop paddy. Ragi, cotton and bengalgram were influenced by their own lagged prices. In Kurnool district the area under redgram, bengalgram and cotton was significantly influenced by their own lagged prices. The gross income from major food and non-food crops was increased in each district of Rayalaseema region. Kurnool registered highest growth rate in gross income from major food and non-food crops, which was 9.23 per cent per annum. Y.S.R Kadapa and Chittoor registered a growth rate of 5.92 and 5.68 per cent per annum respectively. A growth rate of 4.21 per cent per annum was observed in the case of Anantapuram district. Thus, crop shifts exhibited positive and significant influence in the economy of Rayalaseema region.en-USnullThesis