Authors: Levin Sarath. S, Dr. A. Kannan
Abstract: Rainfall variability is one of the important aspects of agricultural production and land use like rain shadow regions. The study analyses the fluctuation of rainfall and land use pattern in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu by considering 2016–2025. The data has been collected from the Secondary sources of the Department of Economics and Statistics, Tirunelveli district. The study looked at actual rainfall, normal rainfall, and deviation of rainfall. It also studied the nine-fold land utilization pattern and Total Common Property Resources (CPR), Total Private Property Resources (PPR). The data has been analysed by using descriptive statistics, deviation of rainfall analysis, and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test to check the significant difference between actual and normal rainfall of the study area. The study found significant deviations in terms of yearly rainfall with a range of 383 mm to 1,931 mm and it varied from −54.67 per cent to 142.59 per cent during 2016–2025. The test result also reported that there is a significant difference between actual and normal rainfall for the study area (p = 0.047). Land use pattern analysis also reported a significant change in forest land, current fallows, and net area sown whereas permanent pasture and other land uses were stable and had a significant degree of variation during 2016–2025. Total CPR and PPR also showed significant variations during the study period. The study concluded that rainfall fluctuation has influenced agricultural production and land use pattern in Tirunelveli district. The study suggested that there is a need for improved water harvesting activities, conservation of CPR, climate-resilient crop patterns, and site-specific land use to cope up with the changing climate in the study area.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22301227
