Land use and cropping pattern in Kolhapur district.

Agriculture plays a very important role in the economic development of the country where 70% of the population is directly or indirectly depends on agriculture for their survival. Land use and cropping pattern is an important aspect of geographical studies particularly relevant to agricultural geography. The growth of population leads to change in land use and cropping pattern. This paper an attempt is made to analysis the changes in land use and cropping pattern of Kolhapur district. In the last two decades (1990-91 and 2000-01) the scenario of land use and cropping pattern in the district were drastic change because of population growth. In 1990-91, out of the total agriculture area 66.71% of agriculture land was under food crops, but in 2000-01 the food crops cultivated area were decrease to 57.41% because remaining agriculture shifted to commercial crops like sugarcane, oilseeds and vegetables etc. Whereas, in 1990-91 the area under non-food crops is decrease up to 33.29% and it increase up to 42.59% in 2000-01,because agriculture trend change towards the food crops to cash crops. The cropping pattern of the district has changed towards commercialization due to increase in irrigation facilities, transport, communication, market facilities etc. The diversified nature of land use pattern and cropping pattern of the Kolhapur district has increased the cropping intensity of the land.