Quite unconsciously, the people have been neglecting the natural resources and traditional genetic base that they had inherited both from their forefathers/mothers and Mother Nature herself.

• Denudation of the hills.
  About 10% of the district are hills, which at one time helped in conserving soil and water while providing green manure and agricultural tools, minor timber and fuel wood for household use and grasses for the cattle. However large scale lopping of the trees and then even shrubs in the remaining patches of green on the hills, has increased the rain water run off dramatically. This has lead to severe erosion of topsoil and very poor recharging of ground water. Today the hills provide only very little grass for cattle grazing, and some wood for fuel while the continuous usage of them further damages the soil and prevents it from recovering.
• Reduced tank storage.
  Tanks, farm ponds and springs had traditionally been the main source of irrigation in the area for the past 900 odd years and they continue to be so in most villages. These tanks were neglected during the British period, a policy that has not changed since Independence. Increased siltation due to the high rate of runoff, which carries away the precious topsoil, has significantly reduced the water holding capacity of most tanks and so their capacity to provide irrigation water to the farmers. Today, few tanks hold water throughout the year. More and more of these tank beds are being used by rich peasants as agricultural land and when the tanks breach, instead of getting them repaired the local governments have been issuing house sites or agricultural pattas, a policy that is extremely short sighted in its approach.
• Poor water availability.
  With poor recharge the open wells have begun to go dry. This has led to overexploitation of artesian sources of ground water through surface bore wells or in well bores, an option that is open only to rich peasants. Water levels have sunk to great depths of over 200 to 300 feet, from earlier 15 to 20 feet a couple of decades ago. In areas such as Tadpatri, farmers have drilled to depths as much as 800 ft to get water.
• Change in cropping pattern.
  The over exploitation of ground water has gone along with a shift away from traditional consumption crops to water intensive cash crops. The farmers have been getting caught in the whirlpool of colourful dreams being projected by successive Governments and international companies, which lead them to alienation from the seeds and animals bred locally, which had sustained their forefathers/mothers in days gone by. Nowadays groundnut has become the single major crop in Anantapur and many of the old traditional cuisine, like Mudda, Sadda rotti, Korrannam, Jonna rotti are already things of the past. Instead of creating wealth for the farmers, the cropping pattern has decreased the ground water levels, lead to erosion of the soil and the farmers have become increasingly impoverished and dependent on external powers they cannot control.
• Loss of traditional seed and genetic resources.
  Massive propaganda and subsidy has promoted the use of hybrid and improved variety of seeds. These seeds need better treatment and more water, they are neither hardy nor pest resistant and they do not supply enough fodder either. The seed is almost worthless for the next crop. Today many indigenous seed varieties are not available even if the farmers want to use them. At the same time, most of the traditional genetic strains of cattle are fast disappearing. In some places the local bulls have been consciously wiped out to introduce foreign strains such as Holstein and Jersey. These have not done so well and in the bargain the rich local genetic resource, capable of surviving these harsh weather conditions, is gone. Similarly, the traditional poultry are in a mess. Anantapur district alone is supposed to have had more than 40 pure strains of fowl, today we have barely managed to identify 23 varieties, that too with a lot of cross breeding. The market has been flooded with "Broilers" that are grown in the most unnatural manner with chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic.
  Many of the youngsters in the villages have never seen a Korra or Sadda (local millets) crop, forget about eating them. Most do not know what a Rela or a Tapasi tree looks like. People are forgetting the different varieties of grasses that grew during the different seasons of the year on different soils. Many do not know any more what grasses the cattle eat during the different seasons, even if they do, they cannot find the different variety of grasses anymore. Many are unaware that Anantapur district had more than 300 to 400 traditional varieties of rice at one time and almost none of them are sure how, where and when they were grown. Much of the medicinal herbs that used to be seen commonly even 20 years ago are not easily found today. Those who used to know about them have taken this knowledge to their graves.
  

• Chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
  Use of new seed supplied by the government and promoted so aggressively by the companies has led to the replacement of on farm manure and natural pesticides with chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Both because the Hybrid varieties are dependent on them and also because it reduces a lot of work for the farmer. This has depleted the fragile soil even more and keeps destroying the diverse microorganisms and natural predators in the agricultural fields, requiring ever increasing inputs and capital.
• Breakdown of community management
  Over centuries, the communities, lead by the panchayats, had developed an elaborate system of resource management. The cutting of timber and fuel wood was organised in such a way, that the forest had enough time to re-grow, the tanks were taken care of by the farmers or the chieftains and grass was allowed to grow long enough before grazing. The communities had developed a sustainable way of living with nature and this worked for centuries.
  Today, quite according to the capitalistic logic, the resource management has shifted to the individuals, who try to get as much as they can. The spirit of community has been replaced by a competitive exploitation of whatever nature has to offer: water, soil, wood, fodder, etc. Nobody cares for the sustenance of the commons such as the tanks, the forests and the hills, anymore. One farmer is in a constant struggle against the other farmer. The divide between the poor and the rich has sharpened. Needless to say the losers have always been the large numbers of poor peasants who have been further and further marginalised. Their existence has become miserable and they can barely sustain themselves from agriculture.

Nutrition levels have dropped drastically in the villages. With the lack of their home grown food crops, most of the people eat highly polished rice and rasam with a little bit of chutney. Most of the villages do not have milk to offer. Wherever there is milk, almost all of it is exported to the chilling plants in major towns.

The average wage is well below the official poverty-line and the poorest are ones who suffer the most from the miserable situation.

Thus the picture of agricultural change in this region presents a dismal scenario of a vicious cycle of exploitation - man over man, man over woman, and man over nature.

Today Anantapur District is nearly a desert, however this was not always the case. Anantapur District was part of one of the most powerful and rich kingdoms of south India - The Vijayanagara Kingdom. Penukonda, situated 70 kilometers south of Anantapur town and 140 kilometers north of Bangalore Metropolis, was the summer capital of King Krishnadevaraya, some 500 years ago.

In the late 19th century a well known British forester had described the forests of Penukonda as one of the finest summer deciduous forests in the south. The Pomegranates and Sitaphal of Penukonda were well known even in the courts of Delhi. For over 700 years, from the Vijayanagara Rayalus to the Bahamani Kings, from Tipu Sultan and the Nizam of Hyderabad to the British, great armies had fought to keep control of this rich and fertile land.

Although the rainfall was always scanty, the farmers knew how to deal with this situation and their agricultural techniques suited the conditions. They had an appropriate selection of sturdy drought resistant crops and their cropping pattern protected the fertility of the soil, which they further increased through on farm production of manure. An elaborate system of scarce water resource management by harvesting of rainwater through tanks and canals allowed successful farming under difficult conditions. Effective community management insured the fair use of the Commons and the sustainable use of natural resources.

Teak and Hardwikia Binata, two of the finest timber trees to grow in India, were exported from here to lay the railway line between Gudur and Madras. Till recently, food and fruit crops in the district were grown with rain water harvested in more than 300 major irrigation tanks (Cheruvu), some having Ayacuts of over 1000 acres and known to store enough water to grow two if not three crops a year. There also were numerous minor Tanks (Kunta) and perennial springs. Many different local varieties of rice, major and minor millets were grown here.