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The land-use changes in Kerala represent an intricate pattern especially in view of the wide variations in physical settings and the complex development patterns adopted in the past. Hence, a study was taken up to examine the land use dynamics. Compound growth rate and Markov chain analysis were employed to analyze the change in land use pattern. The study showed that there is a significant positive growth in area under permanent pastures and other grazing lands and fallow lands other than current fallow. Markov chain analysis showed high instability in permanent pasture and other grazing lands. The present study also revealed that there is stagnation, large scale commercialization and instability in agricultural sector of Kerala. So it is imperative for the government to implement suitable policies such as promotion of group farming ensuring remunerative prices to bring area under cultivable waste under cultivation. Concerted efforts also need to be done to modernize method of agriculture through GALASA- "Samagra Krishi Vikasana Padhathi" (Complete Agricultural Development Project). In this regard fallow land other than the current fallows can be brought under cultivation.
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During the past three decades the agriculture sector of Kerala has undergone wide-ranging changes in terms of ownership of land, cropping pattern, cultivation practices, productivity, and intensity of cultivation. Unlike the other regions in India, the farm front of Kerala is characterized by extreme diversity in its bio-physical resource base and agro-climatic endowments. In earlier periods, the choice of cropping pattern was guided by agronomic considerations and consumption needs of farmers. The methods of land use in Kerala have changed over the past half century or so. Agricultural income in Kerala which showed a steady growth up to the mid-seventies began to decline thereafter and showed a wavering trend in the eighties. This change is mainly attributed to the shift in area from seasonal/annual crops to high-value-yielding perennial cash crops having a long gestation period. By the end of the eighties, cash crops started generating higher income to the farm sector. George and Chattopadhyay (2001) observed that such shifts in land- use may have profound implications for the food security of the state, which already depends on "outside supplies" to meet more than half of its food grain...