Chandrashekar, H.AYYOOB, K. C.2017-06-292017-06-292010-07-10Th-9756http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810023697Study of agricultural development in Kerala assumes significance because of numerous reasons. Agriculture occupies an important place in the economic life of Kerala, as it provides the key to economic growth and fluctuations there in; overall economic growth of the state is greatly influenced by growth achieved in agricultural sector. There are marked regional differences in the pace of agricultural development in Kerala because of natural resource endowments, farming practices, adoption of technology, availability of irrigation facilities, attitude of farmers etc., in different districts of the state. Analysis of agricultural development at district level will help in identifying where a given district stands in relation to others. Present study pertains to agricultural development at district level in Kerala, considering fourty nine variables. The variables were standardized, assigned weight to the variables based on the principal component factor loadings and eigen values, and formed the composite index for each district by combining the indicators. Palakkad district has got highest index, Pathanamthitta district got the least index. The districts were classified into three groups namely, highly developed (> Mean+1/2sd), moderately developed (Mean-1/2sd to Mean+1/2sd) and less developed (<Mean-1/2sd) based on the index. The less developed districts were Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam Idukki, Kozhikode and Kasaragod. Four districts namely Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Wayanad and Kannur fall in moderately developed districts category. The highly developed districts were, Eranakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram. A Multivariate analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was performed for identifying the factors affecting agricultural development across districts. The results shows that, following indicators, viz., area under paddy, area under HYV, net sown area , area under total cereals, rainfall, credit flow from RRBs , marine fish landing, fertilizer consumption and percentage of coastal line were the factors affecting the development of agriculture sector across the districts in the state.ennullThesis