Transformation of Agriculture Towards Rubber Cultivation in Kerala, its Determinants and Growth Karunakaran N.* Post Graduate Department of Economics, EKNM Government College, Elerithattu-671314 (Kerala) *Corresponding author's email: narankarun@gmail.com
JELCodes: Q10, Q15, Q19, Q20 Online published on 20 June, 2017. Abstract The development profile of Kerala agriculture in the last fiftyyears experienced transformation. It is characterised by sharp decline in the area under food crops and substantial expansion of non-food crops. From the analysis of the growth trends of area of major crops in Kerala, the transformationis clearly established with significant movement from food crops to non-food crops and recently towards rubber. This transformation is mainly due to farmers ’decisions and is motivated by various determinants. Area response and yield response models were used to analyse the determinants. The estimateddeterminants are lagged area, expected price of the crop, expected price of the competing crop, lagged yield, expected yield risk and price risk, average annual rainfall, tappable area of rubber, etc. The decision behaviour analysis about rubber revealed that price is the most dominant governing determinant. The real growth of agricultural crop output has declined continuously since 1960s compared to monetary growth. Rubber crop exhibited positive values in all the decomposition components. Top Keywords Determinants, overall growth, rubber, transformation of agriculture. Top |