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Dr. Y. S. Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan

Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, was established on 1st December, 1985 with the objective to promote education, research and extension education in the fields of Horticulture, Forestry and allied disciplines. Late Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar, the first Chief Minister and the architect of Himachal Pradesh perceived the importance of Horticulture and Forestry to develop and improve the State economy which led to the establishment of this University. Its history lies in erstwhile Himachal Agricultural College, Solan, established in 1962 and affiliated to the Panjab University. It became one of the campuses of Agriculture Complex of Himachal Pradesh University on its formation in 1970. Consequent upon the establishment of Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya in 1978, this campus became its Horticulture Complex and finally in 1985, assumed the status of a State University, being the only University in the country engaged exclusively in teaching, research and extension in Horticulture and Forestry. The University is located at Nauni in Solan District of Himachal Pradesh, 13 km from Solan on Solan-Rajgarh Road, at an elevation of 1300 metres above mean sea level. Solan town is situated on national highway (NH-22) and is well connected by train and bus services. The University has four constituent colleges, out of which, two are located at the main campus Nauni, one for horticulture and the other for forestry, having 9 and 7 departments, respectively. The third College i.e., College of Horticulture & Forestry is located at Neri in Hamirpur District on Nadaun-Hamirpur state highway, about 6 Km from Hamirpur town and is well connected with bus service. The college offers three Undergraduate Degree Programmes i.e. BSc (Hons.) Horticulture, BSc (Hons.) Forestry and B. Tech. Biotechnology and MSc degree programme in a few subjects. The fourth college i.e. College of Horticulture and Forestry, Thunag (Mandi) is located at Thunag District Mandi. This college offer BSc (Hons.) Horticulture and BSc (Hons.) Forestry degree programme. In addition, there are five Regional Research Stations, 12 Satellite Stations and five Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) situated in different zones of the State.

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Subject: Agricultural Economics × End date: 2012 × Start date: 2010 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Common property resources and rural livelihood security: A study of common pasturelands in hills of Nepal
    (YSPU, 2012) Regmi, Sudarshan Prasad; Sharma, Ravinder
    The study analyzed the linkages of common property resources (pastureland) with the rural livelihood security of people in Rasuwa district of Nepal. A stratified multistage random sampling design was used to select a sample of 180 respondents from three different climatic zones, viz., temperate (2000-3000 masl), sub-alpine (3000-4000 masl) and alpine (4000-5000 masl). The selected samples were further classified as users’ and non-users’ depending upon their dependence on common pastureland. The result of the study revealed that 63.33 per cent of sampled respondents were users and 83.33 per cent were exclusively dependent on agricultural farming. The pasture to herder ratio was found higher in the temperate zoneand lower in sub-alpine and alpine zone indicatingthat as the altitude increased the number of herder also increased. A maximum likelihood estimates using Tobit model was used to determine collective effort for the pastureland management. It was revealed that area of common pastureland, Gini ratio and income from livestock were positively and significantly whereas, membership to local organization and quadratic form of Gini ratio were negatively and significantly affected the management of the common pastureland. The Tobit analysis revealed that probability in thecollective effort of an average illiterate farmer having Gini ratio of 0.40 and non-member to local organization with landholding of 0.30 ha has probability of 0.261; which further decreased to 0.197 with increased landholding (0.60ha). Further increase in educational level from illiterate to primary lowered in probability to 0.158. The condition of pastureland in physical term and availability of forage were high in alpine zone than the other regions and overall condition was found to be fair to good; with highly weed infestation and unwanted shrubs (56.12 %). The major determinants of the good pastureland condition found using Tobit analysis; were land holding, land to man ratio, family size, household work force, forage availability index andthe status of respondent being user of the pastureland. The findings explicitly indicated that livestock income contributed 51.89 per cent to user household income whereas remittance as off-farm income constituted 59.92 per cent of the non-users’ household income. It was found that food availability based on their own production level of wheat, rice and maize) was deficit in all categories of respondent and climatic zones. Whereas, when potato crop was considered as stable food, then the food available become sufficient. The analyze of the major determinants for willingness to pay for betterment of pastureland condition inferred that were cost of stay, management level, and livestock units were found positively and significantly, and family size and value of resource use negatively and significantly affecting the willingness to pay of with cost of stay being most important (<0.01) factor for both users and non-users of the pastureland. It was further investigated that probability of extent for willingness to pay (WTP) for average respondent in the study area increased with increased in cost of stay, livestock income and family size. The expected amount of WTP for average respondent in overall situation varied from NRs. 304.53 to 680.00 ha 1 yr 1, whereas, in case of nonuser it varied from NRs. 216.58 to 362.62 ha 1 yr 1 . In case of users it increased from NRs.2163.29 to2666505.45 ha 1 yr 1 implying thereby that users were highly motivated to pay more than the non-users in the study area. Itwas revealed that respondents were willing to pay higher price for the higher quality of pastureland improvement. The findings of the present study strongly recommend that there should be a separate pastureland policy to bring several activities related to the pastureland management so that livelihood of the users may be strengthening in future.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STRUCTURE, CONDUCT AND PERFORMANCE OF IMPORTANT TIMBER MARKETS OF NORTHERN INDIA
    (2012) SHARMA, SUBHASH; NEGI, Y.S.
    ABSTRACT Present study analyzed the “Structure, Conduct and Performance of Important Timber Markets of Northern India” by taking a representative sample of 254 tree growers, pre–harvest contractors, commission agents and wholesalers/sawmillers. Representative markets of Saharanpur, Yamuna Nagar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Baddi and Mantaruwala were purposively selected for the present study. Results of the study revealed that for majority of the tree growers the income from farm forestry was prominent; with its share in the total household income ranging from 15.18 per cent in Amritsar area to 24.70 per cent in Hoshiarpur area. Majority of the respondents were in the business of tree growing for reasons of long term financial security. Important tree species planted on the farms were shisham, kikar, mango, eucalyptus and poplar. Eucalyptus and poplar were the most prominent tree species as far as relative allocation of land to growing of different tree species is concerned. Timber marketing in the region was found to be lacking in quality and timely market information, as also in enforcing grade specifications and quality control. Only Saharanpur and HPSFC’s depots were regulated markets. The functioning of other markets was regulated by local marketing organizations like Poplar Safeda Arhatiya Sangathan in Yamuna Nagar and Lakkar Mandi Samities in Amritsar and Hoshiarpur. Yamuna Nagar market is a big market which handles about 250 thousand quintals of timber daily of which bulk is that of poplar and eucalyptus. The timber markets in the study areas are working under imperfectly competitive market situations tilted more towards oligopolistic nature of the market. Contractors, commission agents and HP State Forest Corporation are three marketing intermediaries with whom producers deal directly. Channel involving producer -- contractor -- wholesaler/sawmiller -- consumer is the most important channel through which bulk of the timber is transacted. However, in case of poplar and eucalyptus the channel: producer – contractor -- commission agent -- consumer was found to be more prominent. Shisham is the main species of which an estimated average quantity of 245 quintals per tree grower is transacted in different markets. Shisham was followed by mango with average transaction ranging from 120 quintals in Saharanpur market to 245 quintals in Hoshiarpur market. Producer’s share for poplar ranged from 73.20 per cent in Hoshiarpur market to 77.50 per cent of consumers’ price in Amritsar market. Similarly, in case of eucalyptus the producer’s share ranged between 66 per cent in Yamuna Nagar market to about 80 per cent of the consumer’s price in Amritsar market. Contractor’s margins in Yamuna Nagar were estimated to be about 13 per cent of consumer’s price for poplar and 20 per cent of consumer’s price for eucalyptus. In other markets these were in the range of 4 to 8 per cent in case of poplar and 3 to 5.9 per cent of consumer’s price in case of eucalyptus. HPFSC’s costs forms about 22 per cent of the consumer’s price while wholesaler/sawmiller’s margin were in the range of 11 to 16.6 per cent of the consumer’s price. A high degree of market integration was there in the selected markets for different timber species. Production area wise response regarding various problems related to market intelligence reveal that tree growers and pre–harvest contractors of Yamuna Nagar and Saharanpur were relatively at a disadvantage as compared to their counterparts in other selected timber producing areas. Difficulty in getting harvesting permit, late information, small size of auction platform and high transportation charges were other important problems faced by the tree growers. Lack of market infrastructural facilities is the major and the common problem faced by the commission agents and wholesalers/sawmillers in all the study markets, followed by problems of unregulated vehicles and the lack of accommodation for the tree growers in the markets. The results of the study suggest the need to assure tree growers of the remunerative returns, if not by support prices then may be by further promoting wood-based industries and improving the industrial infrastructure for these industries. Establishment of such industries in the vicinity of producing areas will send a right message to the tree growers with regard to sustainability of the demand for their product. Also, there is a need to ensure proper conduct of timber market which is the responsibility of the concerned public agencies. Forest corporations or tree growers’ cooperatives need to be promoted and the same should show their presence to increase competition in the market to improve the efficiency of the timber markets.