Anantapur district is one of the southern districts of Andhra Pradesh State spread
between 13’ 40” and 15’ 15” northern Latitude and 76’ 50” and 78’ 30” eastern
Longitude. The district has been divided into three revenue divisions – Anantapur,
Dharmavaram and Penukonda – consisting of 63 revenue mandals.1 The district
capital Anantapur is located at the north-central part of the district at an average
elevation of 1100 ft above mean sea level. There is a general rise in elevation towards
south of the district to join the Karnataka plateau where the average elevation is 2000 ft. The minimum and maximum temperatures range between 14o C to 40o C. The total population of Anantapur district is 40,83,315 as per the Census of India 2011.

The district has normal rainfall of 553 mm. The normal rainfall for the SouthWest monsoon period (June-September) is 338 mm, which is 61.2 per cent of the
total rainfall for the year. The rainfall for North-East monsoon period (OctoberDecember) is 156 mm only, which is 28.3 per cent of total annual rainfall
(Government of Andhra Pradesh, 2009). The district is endowed with red soils,
covering about 76 per cent of the district. In few northern mandals black and red soils occur in equal proportion. Black soils are in 24 per cent of the district, spread in 14 northern mandals. 

The district has a total geographical area of 19.13 lakh ha. The cultivated area of
the district is 11.88 lakh ha out of which 10.27 lakh ha is under kharif and 1.61 lakh
ha is under rabi season during the year 2007-08. Groundnut is the predominant kharif crop grown in around 8.5 lakh ha. The district occupies the lowest position in respect of surface irrigation facilities with only 11 per cent of the gross cropped area during 2007-08 (Government of Andhra Pradesh, 2009).