Andhra Pradesh is endowed with a variety of soils ranging from poor coastal sands to highly fertile deltaic alluviums. Red soils occupy over 66% of the cultivated area and are mostly situated in Rayalaseema districts. These soils have a low nutrient status. Red earths which are commonly termed as Red soils can be sub-classified as (a) Dubba soils (loamy sands to sandy loams) (b) Chalkas (Sandy loam soils) (c) Sandy clay loams (d) Loams including silty soils (e) Deep loamy sands and (f) Sandy loams with clay subsoil. Chalkas occur mostly in the Telangana districts while red loams combined with sands are present in the upland regions of coastal districts.


Black soils cover nearly 25% of the cultivated area and are generally associated with poor drainage. They are also called as Regurs or Vertisols and are of two types. The first category is in-situ soils while the other one is transported soils. While the first category can be noticed in the Coastal districts and parts of Telangana and Rayalaseema, the second category occur in the valley regions of the slopes with calcareous concentrations. The in-situ soils are generally heavy in texture and high in salt concentration.


The alluvial loamy clay soils found in Krishna and Godavari deltas cover 5% of the cultivated area. The coastal sands occupy only 3% while the remaining 1% is covered by laterite soils in certain pockets of the State.

Cropping intensity is one of the indices for assessing the efficiency of crop agriculture sector. The cropping intensity i.e., the ratio of gross area sown to net area sown is 1.26 in 2007-08 and it was during 2006-07. The level of cropping intensity move in consonance to the behavior of the monsoon and availability of irrigation water.

The irrigation intensity ie., the ratio of gross irrigated area to net irrigated area is 1.35 in 2007-08, where as it was 1.36 in 2006-07.