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Subject: Agricultural Economics × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2020 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Impact of Panchayati Raj Institutions on Socio-Economic Development of Rural Households in Himachal Pradesh
    (palampur, 2022-07-18) Ghabru, Mahima Gopal; Lal, Harbans
    Panchayati Raj Institutions inter-alia have initiated the process of socio-economic development of rural areas by ensuring participatory management of masses and implementation of various social upliftment and poverty alleviation schemes. They are expected to bring radical transformation in rural areas through holistic agricultural and institutional development. In a state like Himachal Pradesh where majority of the population lives in rural areas this study becomes more relevant as PRIs embrace every aspect of rural life and are considered as harbingers of democracy and guardians of the village community. Therefore, present study was conducted to examine and analyze the role and impact of Panchayati Raj Institutions on the rural households in the four districts viz., Solan and Una (developed districts), Chamba and Sirmaur (under-developed districts) of Himachal Pradesh using both primary and secondary data. Multistage random sampling technique was employed and a total sample of 8 blocks, 40 panchayats/villages and 200 sample respondents was selected. The findings of the study put forth that in all the selected panchayats meetings of Gram Sabha were scheduled four times annually but the quorum was not met more than two times in most of the selected panchayats. The study employed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to devise the development index for various selected panchayats. Fifteen per cent (6 no.) of panchayats primarily of Una and Solan districts were very highly developed and 22.50 per cent (9 no.) panchayats were highly developed while all the less developed panchayats were from Chamba and Sirmaur district showing that these panchayats still lag behind in developmental indicators. It was observed that around 29.50 per cent respondents from developed districts and 26.50per cent respondents from under-developed districts respectively were ready to pay for conservation of natural resources while 20.50 and 23.50 per cent respondents from developed and under-developed districts were unwilling to pay for resource conservation as they felt it would not be utilized effectively. In under-developed districts as the bid value increased the willingness to pay decreased. The study also put forth the different source of income for panchayats in which maximum share was of external sources i.e. Funds under Centre Sponsored Schemes like MGNREGA, PMAY, NRLM, etc. and funds from Finance Commission, across majority panchayats. Panchayats generated lot of income from various internal sources in which maximum share was contributed by liquor cess followed by house/land tax across all sample panchayats. Panchayats were effectively utilizing funds available with them by community asset creation, land development, sanitation, water supply, electrification, and welfare etc. Respondents in the study area felt that various activities were adequately being done by panchayats but there was scope for improvement by ensuring more transparency in their working, by timely execution of works and ensuring that works to be done in the panchayat area are taken up with the consent of all people. Therefore it is felt that by ensuring capacity building of panchayat representatives, recruitment of technical and support staff and by creating awareness among masses about the importance of gram sabhas and their participation in them could lead to holistic and effective socio-economic development in rural areas.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Dynamics of Land Use Pattern in Himachal Pradesh
    (Palampur, 2022-01-07) Sood, Shivalika; Kumar, Virender
    The status of land use pattern broadly reflects the process of development of a region. In a state like Himachal Pradesh where nearly 60 per cent of population depends upon agriculture as their main source of livelihood, it is a major land demanding activity. The stagnation of land under cultivation has become a severe problem due to unrelenting demographic pressure and because of increasing diversion of land from agriculture to non-agricultural uses. Therefore, the present research was carried out to study the dynamics of land use pattern in three agro-climatic zones (Zone I, II and III) of the state. The study was based on both secondary and primary data. The secondary data on land use for the period 1972-73 to 2018-19 were collected from different publications of Government of HP and GOI. Further, the data were grouped in four periods viz. period I ( TE 1974-75 to 1988-89), period II ( TE 1989-90 to 2003-04), period III (TE 2004-05-2018-19) and overall period ( TE1974-75 to 2018-19). Primary data were collected through survey method from 180 farmers selected using proportional allocation technique. The findings of the study showed that the proportion of area under forest has increased from 21.75 per cent in 1974-75 to 28.75 per cent in 1990-91, after that it declined to 24.56 per cent in 2018-19. The proportion of net sown area to the total area has declined from 18.85 per cent in 1974-75 to 11.94 per cent in 2004-05, after that it has risen marginally to 11.88 per cent in 2018-19. It was observed that the CAGR in area under culturable waste declined by 0.49 per cent per annum and barren land increased by 5.50 per cent whereas, land put to nonagricultural uses increased by 2.27 per cent and net sown area has significantly decreased at the rate of 0.13 per cent per annum during the overall period. It was noticed that period III has lowest level of instability in all categories of land compared to periods I and period II. Inter-sectoral land budgeting revealed that area shift were occurring from both desirable and undesirable ecology sectors towards agricultural as well as non-agricultural sectors. The results of multinomial logistic regression revealed that factors like total owned land, number of fragments, investment in agriculture sector and farm income significantly affected the agricultural land use for being in the medium category of land use change. The factors like age of head of household, education level of head, per cent irrigated area, number of fragments and farm income significantly affected the agricultural land use change for being in the high category of land use change. Simultaneous equation model was used to study the impact of agricultural land use change on agricultural production and results indicated that family size, cultivated land and agricultural productivity had positive impact on gross household income. But the impact of agricultural productivity was non-significant which indicated the fact that farmers’ income also depended on the non-agricultural earning. The other results showed that the gross household income, agricultural land use change and investment in agriculture had positive effects on agricultural productivity. The high significance of the agricultural land use change suggests that the change in agricultural productivity largely depended on the changing socio-economic conditions in agriculture. All the farmers who were engaged in natural farming experienced decrease in yield, farming expenses, net income and increase in manual labour and no change in price received for produce under natural farming. Therefore, proper planning and management of land resources and appropriate policy framework are required to check the conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes and proper implementation of land use policies are needed