Agriculture in Tamil Nadu

Despite the growing weight of industry and services, agriculture remains central to rural life in Tamil Nadu, and the state's farming pattern is shaped strongly by its varied agro-climatic regions — the fertile river deltas, the drier interior plains, the hill areas, and the coastal tracts.

Paddy (rice) is the principal food crop of Tamil Nadu and forms the staple diet of most of its population. It is grown across much of the state, but the river deltas — most famously the Cauvery delta in the Thanjavur region, long and popularly referred to as the "rice bowl of Tamil Nadu" — have historically been the state's most productive paddy-growing tracts because of their fertile alluvial soil and assured irrigation.

Beyond paddy, Tamil Nadu grows a range of other important crops depending on the region:

• Sugarcane, an important cash crop grown mainly in irrigated tracts, feeding the state's sugar mills.
• Cotton, grown in the drier interior districts, historically feeding the state's large textile industry (discussed further in the next section).
• Groundnut, an important oilseed crop grown widely in the drier plains.
• Pulses and millets, grown in the less-irrigated and rain-fed regions, forming an important part of dryland farming and of local diets in those areas. …