Sustainable Production Systems for Agriculture Development in Mountains of Himachal Pradesh, India
Ashok Kumar
Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension Education and Rural Sociology, CSK HPKV, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Atul Dogra *
South Asia and China Regional Program, ICARDA, New Delhi, India.
J. S. Guleria
Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension Education and Rural Sociology, CSK HPKV, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The paper examined the existing production systems in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh and suggested further improvement on the existing, which can help farmers to sustain. The study undertaken in low and mid hills of Himachal Pradesh is based on both primary and secondary data collected from 160 farmers (80 farmers from each zone). Under rainfed farming, maize-wheat was the main cropping system, but returns were better in maize-peas (Rs 71,239/ha). In irrigated areas, tomato-tomato-peas was the most profitable farming (Rs 5, 02,378/ha). Consumption of fat was the biggest gap in all categories of farmers.
Keywords: Production systems, average yield, gaps, mountains