Economy
Agriculture is the main occupation. The most prominent crop is rice. Palakkad is known as the Rice Bowl of Kerala. But in recent times, rice cultivation has become unremunerative due to high wages and low prices. Hence, farmers have turned to other crops and the area under rice cultivation has decreased drastically. In the areas bordering Tamil Nadu, crops such as sugar cane, groundnut, tomato, jasmine etc. are cultivated. Rubber is the main crop in the hilly regions. Vegetables like pumpkin, ash gourd, bitter gourd, brinjal, etc. are now cultivated extensively. Tamarind, Neem, Mango and Palm trees are seen in abundance in Palakkad, as in Tamil Nadu. The district is a major centre of export for mangoes and tamarind. Jaggery, which is unrefined sugar, is made from sugarcane in Chittur Taluk.
The only big city in the district is the district head quarters, Palakkad.The retail giant Panthaloons BIGBAZAR opened their first showroom of Kerala in this city.Joby's mall,the biggest mall of the city is one of the biggest of the state itself. All major jeweleries of the state has at least one showroom in the town. Biggest brands such as The Raymond, Woodlands, Reebok, Peter England, Scullers, Indigo nation, John Miller, Basics life, Derby, Cotton County, Koutons, Bombay Dyeing, has their own exclusive showrooms in the city.
In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Palakkad one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the two districts in Kerala currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).
Read more about this topic: Palakkad District
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)