Crop Diversification in Selected Tahsils of Yavatmal District- A Micro Level Analysis

The present study is an attempt to examined the crop diversification in selected tahsils of Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. The study is based on secondary data collected from various Government publications and pertains to a period of 13 years i.e. from 2003-04 to 2015-16. The selected tahsils of Yavatmal district were Mahagaon, Wani, Maregaon, Zari Jamni,Kelapur and Ralegaon. In order to work out growth in area of major crops exponential model was fitted and to work out instability in area of major crops CV was calculated. To study the crop diversification Herfindahl and Entropy indices have been worked out. The results the study showed that the compound growth rates of area of major crops i.e Soybean, and Tur were significantly positive. The area of Cotton in Mahagaon and Wani tahsil was significantly negative. Highest variability in the area of Soybean was observed in Mahagaon tahsil. The diversification from subsistence crop to more commercial crops were took place in the selected tahsils of Yavatmal district.