History
Nellore district, is the southern most coastal district in Andhra Pradesh with Nellore as the District Head Quarters. Nellore has a Total population of the district as per 1991 census is 23,92,260 persons and is spread over an area of 13,076 hectares.Nellore district formed part of the composite Madras State till 1st October 1953. On 1st November 1956 when the states were reorganised on a linguistic basis this district came under the Andhra Pradesh State.

Nellore was also known as Vikramasimhapuri. Historically, the place is very important. Culturally, Nellore town stands unique among the other towns of Andhra Pradesh as it is supposed to be the place where the greatest of the Telugu poets, Tikkana Somayaji, who translated the Mahabharata into Telugu, lived.

Nellore is situated on the south coastal region of Andhra Pradesh and is surrounded by Prakasam District on the north, Cuddappah district on the west, Chittoor district and Tamilnadu on the south and Bay of Bengal on the east.

Culture
Food Habits: As in the other parts of this region, rice is the staple food. Seafood is also consumed as a delicacy.

Language
The people of this district speak Telugu and Tamil languages. Telugu is influenced by Tamil, giving a peculiar accent.

Industries
Since the economy is predominantly agricultural one, industrial development in the initial stages was mainly agro-based in Nellore District. But with the setting up of 7 large and medium scale industries, about 1200 small-scale industrial units in the district are also set up in the district.

Climate

Rivers, Canals and Waterways

Penna is the major river which flows the district .The principal rivers, which flow through the district, are the Pennar and Swarnamukhi. Other streams occasional and torrential in character are Kandaleru and Boggeru.

Agriculture and Irrigation
Agriculture is the main occupation of the district. About 71 percent of the total work force is dependent upon agriculture sector either as cultivators or agricultural labours. Most of the rural areas in the district continue to be backward as there are no major river systems and no assured water supply for irrigation purposes, except in few delta taluks. The total cropped area is 3.40 lakhs hectares, while the net area sown was about 3.16 lakhs hectares. Food crops accounted for 84.4 percent of the total cropped area. Rice is the staple food in the district and paddy covered about 55.9 percent of the total cropped area in the District.