Diversification of Agriculture in Coastal Districts of Tamil Nadu – a Spatio- Temporal Analysis

Crop diversification is considered as a resilience mechanism followed by farmers in different regions. Socio-ecological systems of coastal areas are more vulnerable to the impact of climatic changes. In the present paper, it is shown that there exists wide spatio-temporal disparity in the diversification of crops in the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu State, India. This is done by constructing a crop diversification index which provides a basis for ranking the different districts. So in those regions which are more vulnerable for climatic change, more diversification of crops must be attempted to avoid risk of crop failure and loss of income and employment to the rural people. 1