Government of Tamil Nadu

Department of Economics and Statistics

Season and Crop Report 2005-06

PREFACE

The Department of Economics and Statistics is bringing out a number of important publications on the sectoral performance of the State reflecting the changes perceived in the course of normative operations supplemented by the policy imperatives of the Governments both at the State and the Centre. "The Season and Crop Report of Tamil Nadu 2005 -06", a year long effort of the Department focused on the agricultural scenario of the State on land use statistics in general with specific reference to the prevailing conditions with regard to crop area, water resources, weather conditions, infrastructure and their impact on the food production of the State, is virtually the principal report which contains a wealth of information.

The data required for this publication have been collected and compiled from various Departments/ agencies : data on rainfall from the India Meteorological Department and the Village level agricultural data such as Land Use, irrigation and cultivation accounts, from the records of the Revenue Department right from the Village level to aggregates to Taluk/District and State.

The estimates of agricultural production have been arrived based on the yield rate derivatives obtained as a result of Crop Estimation Surveys conducted by this Department by utilising the services of the officials of the Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture. For minor crops such as Onion, Chillies, Turmeric, Tapioca, Coconut, Fruits and Vegetables, the results of the Crop Estimation Surveys conducted by field staff of this Department have been adopted.

A comprehensive picture on the price situation has also been incorporated in this report as done earlier throwing information on Wholesale prices, Retail Prices and Agricultural wages the data of which were collected by this Department from various agencies.

This Report consists of three major parts

Part I deals with monsoon behavior, Land Use pattern, irrigation and comparative analysis of area, production and yield rate of principal crops with that of previous year.

Part II contains Summary Tables and Index Numbers of Agricultural Economy and

Part III provides data on Rainfall, Land Use Statistics, Sources of Irrigation, Area and Production and yield rate of crops, agricultural wages, wholesale and retail prices etc.

In order to gauge the quantum of changes in the agricultural sector, data on area and production of principal crops in the State for the past 5 years have also been incorporated for facilitating policy makers to take a stock on the trend in the agricultural sector.

With these efforts at store to continuously strive to improve the quality of data and achieve new heights in the process, it is hoped that the data furnished in this report would certainly be beneficial to all stakeholders for effective planning and implementation of variety of agricultural programmes for sustainable development of agricultural sector in the state.

Suggestions for improvement of this publication are most welcome.