Andhra Pradesh - Region Profile

Andhra Pradesh is India's fourth largest state by area with about 27.5 million hectare area and fifth largest by population, with more than 84 million inhabitants in 2011. Agriculture has been the chief source of income for the state's economy. Andhra Pradesh is an exporter of many agricultural products. Rice, sugarcane, cotton, chilli pepper, mango, and tobacco are the local crops. Recently, crops used for vegetable oil production such as sunflower and peanuts have gained favor.

Andhra Pradesh has been historically called as the "Rice Bowl of India" and continues to be the largest producer of rice in the country. Table 1 illustrates the current area, productivity and production statistics of major crops in Andhra Pradesh.


The state of Andhra Pradesh ranks second in fertilizer consumption in the country next to Uttar Pradesh. Nutrient consumption in Andhra Pradesh in the past decade is given in Fig. 2. The consumption of total fertilizer nutrients increased from 2.747 million MT during 2012-13 to 3.119 million MT during 2013-14 registering a significant increase of 13.6% over the previous year. Total nutrient consumption increased both in Kharif and Rabi seasons. During Kharif 2013, the consumption increased by 5%, and in Rabi 2013-14 by 22.6%. Kharif: Rabi share in total consumption changed from 51:49 in 2012-13 to 47:53 during 2013-14.

During full year, the consumption of N at 2.113 million MT, P₂O₅ at 0.747 million MT and K₂O at 0.259 million MT during 2013-14 increased by 18.6%, 4.7% and 2.8%, respectively, over 2012-13. NPK use ratio changed from 7.1:2.8:1 during 2012-13 to 8.1:2.9:1 during 2013-14. Per hectare consumption of total nutrients increased from 199.7 kg to 226.7 kg during the period. Using the area and production of major crops, the total nutrient (N, P₂O₅ and K₂O) removal by each crop was calculated and a nutrient balance sheet was prepared (table 2).

Table 1: Latest Crop Production Statistics of Andhra Pradesh- 2012-13

Parameters	Rice	Wheat	Maize	Total Cereals	Gram	Total Pulses	Total Foodgrains	Total Oilseeds	Sugarcane	Cotton#
Area	3628	8	972	5041	681	1949	6990	1945	196	2400
Production	11510	10	4855	17039	762	1623	18662.5	1651.1	15567	7350
Productivity	3173	1250	4995	3380	1119	833	2670	849	79423	521

Area ('000 ha); Production ('000 tonnes); Productivity (kg/ha); # Production and Productivity in 1000 bales of 180 kg each

Table 2: Nutrient balance sheet for major crops of Andhra Pradesh (2012-13)

Crop	Area (in '000 ha)	Production (in '000 tonnes)	Nutrient Removal (kg/tonne)			Total Removal (tonnes)
			N	P2O5	K2O	N	P2O5	K2O
Rice	3628	11510	20.1	11.2	30	231351	128912	345300
Wheat	8	10	24.4	8.6	32.8	244	86	328
Maize	972	4855	8.2	3.1	15.5	39811	15050.5	75252.5
Total Pulses	1949	1623	40	5	20	64920	8115	32460
Total Oilseeds	1945	1651.1	54	14	46	89159.4	23115.4	75950.6
Sugarcane	196	15567	1.7	0.2	2	26463.9	3113.4	31134
		Total removal by major crops				451949.3	178392.3	560425.1
		Total fertilizer consumption in Andhra Pradesh				1780920	713920	252260
		Consumption * Efficiency factor				712368	214176	176582
		Balance/Deficit				260418.7	35783.7	-383843

Efficiency of N=40%; P2O5= 30%; and K2O=70%

*Crop production and fertilizer use data are retrieved from Fertilizer Statistics, 2013-14, The Fertilizer Association of India, New Delhi