A Geographical Study of Crop Diversification in Drought Prone Area of Nasik District (M.S.)

Abstract

The present research work has thrown limelight on the crop diversification of the drought prone areas of Nasik district of Maharashtra State. The investigation shows that the crop diversification is low in the drought prone areas of Nashik distict while crop diversification is high in the non-drought prone zone. It shows that rainfall, urban centres, economic development etc. affects on the crop diversification. Farmers are using cropping pattern which is supporting to low rainfall. Author has been employed crop diversification index and studied comparatively for drought and non-drought prone areas of Nasik district. The present investigation devoted to drought prone area of Nashik district. There are six tahsils i.e. Deola, Malegaon, Nandgaon, Chandvad, Sinnar are included in the drought zone. The conclusion of this research work shows that Nandgaon tahsil recorded very low crop diversification only bajra and onion these two crops are grown while Chandwad tahsil produced bajra, onion and fodder crops. The medium crop diversification found in Deola, Malegaon and Sinnar tahsil with four crops where, bajra and maize and onion are the main crops in these tahsil. The highest crop diversification recorded in Yeola tahsil. It harvest six crops i.e. bajra, vegetables, maize, wheat, grapes and groundnut.