Dynamics of Crop Shift and Land Use Change at Farm Household Level in Kerala

This paper analyses the dynamics of crop shift and land use change in Kerala. Over the years land use under agriculture has undergone significant changes through a crop shift and then to non-agricultural uses. Since crop shift is one of the determining factors for land use change, this paper examines first the nature of crop shift. Then it proceeds to find out the determinants of crop shift and its impact. The study makes use of both primary and secondary data. For primary data, a census study of the village was done to understand and verify the nature of crop shift at the macro level which has been done first to understand the nature of crop shift. Using simple statistical tools like percentages and averages and the regression analysis. Using the secondary data, the study finds that there has been a significant change in the nature of crop cultivated from the food crops to the perennial commercial crops. The commercial crops whose increase took place at the expense of food crops were coconut, rubber, pepper, ginger, banana and other plantain. The same result was confirmed at the farm household level too. The regression analysis proved that the major determinants of crop shift are high income as the farmers are motivated for getting more income, then perennial nature of the crops and lack of availability of labour were the significant factors that determined crop shift. The study found that consumption expenditure on food items has increased and the employment has decreased in the post land reform phase as well in the economic reform phase.