Crop diversification opportunities in distressed districts of Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh- A need of support mechanism

Abstract

Andhra Pradesh was in the limelight during the late 1990s for taking bold initiatives to improve the quality of governance and accelerate economic growth. The state also became one of the frontrunners in the field of information technology in India. During the same period, it also had the dubious distinction of recording the highest number of suicides by farmers, the highest number of indebted households, large-scale rural-urban migration, increase in the number of agricultural laborers, and the highest incidence of child labor in India1. This paradoxical situation was mainly due to the slowing down of agricultural growth and the deteriorating health of the agricultural sector. The main concerns were declining investment and rising input subsidies in agriculture and deceleration of productivity growth (Hanumantha Rao and Mahendra Dev 2003).