Cultivation Costs and Revenues on Tribal Lands in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram Districts

The tribal areas constitute a very significant portion of backward areas of the country presenting a complex situation for both planners and administrators. The tribal communities predominately live in hilly and forest regions, which are comparatively inaccessible and isolated. This paper has analyzed the costs and revenues on tribal lands in the study area.

            The cost of cultivation on seeds in very low among the sample households. More than 56 per cent of the sample households are spending less than Rs. 500 on seeds. Around 70 per cent of the sample households are spending less than Rs. 500 on fertilizers. More than 44 per cent of the sample households are having total income in the range of rupees Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000. Non- agricultural activities in the study area are also a good substitute for the livelihood of the scheduled tribes. More than 95 per cent of the sample households do not get the credit from institutional sources and it leads to get the credit from private moneylenders. In this regard, the government should play active role in making the institutional sources disburse the loans to the scheduled tribe people in these areas so that they are brought out of the clutches of the moneylenders.