Land Use Changes in the Kerala State, India: A Temporal Analysis

The land is a vital input among all the production resources. The land utilization pattern in Kerala has undergone tremendous change over the years. The present study examines the temporal variations of land use categories in Kerala from 1985-2019. The time series data on the area under land use categories were collected from various published sources and the analysis was done at the state level. The GSVA agriculture at constant prices (1985-2019) data were used to estimate the trend breaks. The growth and instability of the land use categories were estimated using CAGR and Cuddy-Della Valle instability index. The land put to non-agricultural uses, cultivable waste, current fallow and other fallow land categories exhibited positive annual growth rates in the overall period. The permanent pastures with an instability index value of 65.16 per cent was the most unstable land use category. The trend of decline in arable land and an increase in share of uncultivable land over the years was noticed in Kerala.