Agriculture : Kerala

Prior to the independence also Kerala was always been a land of agriculture where 50 % of the population is still manages their earnings from the sector and totally dependent on outputs of agricultural products. Major cash crops are produced in the state and Kerala too has dominance over such crops production areas. The Kerala is a major producer of coconut, rubber, pepper, cardamom, ginger, cocoa, cashew, arecanut, coffee and tea. Apart from these spices like cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg etc are also among the cultivated products of the state.

Due to its favourable natural conditions the state Kerala successfully recorded an average growth rate of 3.6% over the target of 2.5%. From the past decades it is also observed from the past decades that the annual growth rate of the crop sector is around 2.5%. The significance is very much dependent on the trend which is observed recently that there is a dimension large scale shift from high volume low value crops to low volume, high value crops. 

Kerala’s most important food is rice and almost 600 varieties of rice are harvested from the land of Kerala every year. Other key crops are coconut, rubber, coffee, cashews, tea and spices. The land of Kerala produces highest number of spices production which signifies through the country’s reputation as India is the premier producer of spices in the global spices market. Major spices are pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla crops.