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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AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF FARMING SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVING LIVELIHOOD SECURITY OF HILL FARMERS
(NAUNI,UHF, 2020-12) SANJEEV KUMAR; SHARMA, RAVINDER
ABSTRACT The present study has been carried out in the hills of Himachal Pradesh by selecting a sample of 240 farmers from all four agro-climatic zones of the State. Stratified random sampling technique was used for the selection of sampled households. The results revealed that average family size at overall level in the study area comprises of 5.39 persons, out of which, the proportion of males (52.24%) was higher than the female (48.09%) counterparts. The literacy rate was found to vary between 83.33 to 90.00 per cent among selected districts with overall literacy rate of 87.08 per cent. Agriculture has been found as the main occupation as 65.83 per cent of farmers at overall level were engaged in it. Average size of land holding was found maximum (1.35 ha) in Kinnaur district of Zone-IV followed by Mandi district of Zone-II (1.23 ha), Shimla district of Zone-III (1.17 ha) and Una district of Zone-I (1.07 ha). Overall, the average land holding of the sampled households was 1.21 hectare out of which only 47.93 per cent was irrigated. The gross cropped area was highest (2.08 ha) in Mandi district followed by Una (1.84 ha), Shimla (1.54 ha) and Kinnaur (1.33 ha) districts. The cropping intensity was highest in Una (194%) followed by Mandi (192%), Shimla (143%) and Kinnaur (110%) districts with overall cropping intensity of 157 per cent. The standard animal unit was highest (4.01) in Kinnaur district followed by Shimla (3.55), Mandi (3.27) and Una (2.95) districts. The farmers of the study area were practicing six major farming systems, viz., C+V+F+D, C+F+D, C+V+D, V+F+D, C+D and F+D at overall level. Among these farming systems, C+V+F+D and C+F+D farming systems were most profitable in Kinnaur district of Zone-IV with output-input ratio of 1.38 and 1.35, respectively. Further, C+V+D farming system was most profitable in Shimla district of Zone-III(1.18), whereas, the output-input ratio in case of C+D farming system was higher (1.16) in Una district of Zone-I. The output-input ratio under V+F+D and F+D farming systems was 1.33 and 1.28, respectively. The results related to input use pattern of existing farming systems revealed that among selected districts as well as at overall level, expenditure on human labour accounted for maximum proportion of total input cost followed by expenditure on green fodder and dry fodder. On an overall level, lowest variation in Cost C3/D (16.65%) was under C+V+D farming system, whereas, the income inequality was minimum (0.18) under C+D farming system. The impact of age of farmer under C+D; household size under C+V+F+D, C+F+D and V+F+D; farmers’ education under C+V+F+D, C+V+D and V+F+D; years of experience under C+F+D and C+V+D, and number of animals under all existing farming systems was found statistically significant. Further, increasing returns to scale were found under C+V+F+D (1.05), C+F+D (1.13) and C+D (1.15) farming systems implying that doubling of input in these systems will result in enhancing the output more than double, whereas, under C+V+D (0.98) and V+F+D (0.88), there were decreasing returns to scale. The optimum plans developed for different farming systems clearly revealed the possibility of increasing the farm profitability by optimum utilization of the available resources. The estimated impact of market access on input use and agricultural productivity revealed that the use of inputs under investigation increased with improvement in market access of farmers leading to increase in aggregate agricultural productivity. On an overall level, it was found that lack of subsidy for inputs, lack of processing facilities, lack of training or extension services, high cost of inputs, high cost of production, labour scarcity, lack of regulated markets, price fluctuations, non-remunerative prices, monkeys/wild animals/stray animals’ menace and higher insect/pests /disease attack were the major constraints of farming systems in the study area.
Open Access
ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF APPLE CULTIVATION IN HIMACHAL PRADESH
(NAUNI,UHF, 2020-11) DEV RAJ; SHARMA, RAVINDER
ABSTRACT The present study entitled “Assessment of Technical Efficiency of Apple Cultivation in Himachal Pradesh” was undertaken with a vision to study the technical efficiency in apple cultivation. Out of the four agro-ecological zones of Himachal Pradesh, zone-II, zone-III and zone-IV were selected purposively. The results of trends in area, production, productivity and export-import of apple were analysed at international, national and state level and results showed that the world’s apple production has grown at a compound growth rate of 2.51% per cent per annum, whereas India recorded a significant growth (3.40%) per annum which was higher than world’s growth rate. Increase in apple production of world was due to area (33.35%) and yield (41.19%) expansion, whereas, increase in production in Asian region was because of area-yield effect (52.02%). Trend in area and production was analyzed by dividing the study period into two sub period 1973 to 1990 (P-I) and 1990 to 2018 (P-II) and results revealed that the increase in apple production in India and Himachal Pradesh was mainly due to area expansion only. In Himachal Pradesh, growth in apple production has been decreased (4.74%) in second period as compared to first period (7.35%). Area under apple orchards was found to be highest (1.32ha) in zone-II followed by (1.15ha) in zone-III and (0.91ha) in zone-IV. Among the traditional cultivar, Royal Delicious and Red Delicious were the major apple cultivars occupying 54.17 and 34.72 per cent of the total area, whereas, Top Red (39.02%) and Red Chief (34.15%) occupied the major area among the new cultivars. Net returns from age group 27-35 year were highest (Rs. 3.79 lakh) followed by age group 17-26 (Rs. 3.34 lakh), >35 (2.55 lakh), 12-16 (Rs. 2.07 lakh) and 7-11 (Rs. 92,873.75) years, whereas, the payback period was found to be in 9 years and internal rate of return as 24 per cent for all agro-climatic zones. The overall mean technical efficiency was found to be highest (88.64%) in 17-26 years apple plantation followed by 27-35 (85.63%) years, 12-16 (81.24%) years, 7-11 (75.68%) years and >35 (70.04%) years. Mean technical efficiency for all age group plantations was highest in zone-III followed by zone-II and zone-IV, which means that the sample apple orchardists of zone-III were already operating in more efficient level of production. Sampled apple orchardists were adapting the major strategies like rainwater harvesting techniques (76%), high density plantation (66%), improved varieties (61%), and moisture conservation techniques (64%) to mitigate the impact of climate change in order to improve the production and productivity of apple.
Open Access
MARKET INTEGRATION AND PRICE TRANSMISSION BEHAVIOUR IN APPLE MARKETS OF INDIA
(UHF,NAUNI, 2019-03) SHILPA; SHARMA, RAVINDER
ABSTRACT The present study entitled “Market Integration and Price Transmission Behaviour in Apple Markets of India” investigated the integration among five major apple markets i.e., Dhalli(Shimla), Chandigarh, Bengalore, Azadpur(Delhi) and Mumbai. The trends in area, production, productivity and export of apple were analysed at national and state level. The results of state-wise trend analysis during 2006-07 to 2015-16 revealed highest growth rate in area (2.72%/annum) and production (6.46 %/annum) was found in J&K and Himachal Pradesh respectively. The trends of apple area and production in India were analyzed by dividing the study period into two sub periods viz. 1960-61 to 1990-91(P-I) and 1991-92 to 2015-16(P-II) and the results revealed significant positive growth in both the periods with highest growth (6.23%/annum) in P-1 and variability in area was also higher in P-I as compared to P-II. Trends in production of apple recorded a significant positive growth in apple production during both the periods with highest growth rate of 7.11 percent per annum during P-I, whereas, variability was highest during P-II (4.58). The productivity was increasing significantly during P-II (2.73%/annum) and (0.32%/annum) in overall period, whereas, declininggrowth was foundduring P-I (-0.28%/annum). Decomposition analysis of apple production in India revealed that in P-I production variation in apple was mainly due to area effect, whereas, in P-II, it was due to yield effect. But in overall period area effectwas recorded. Period-wise and areas wise trends were also analysed for Himachal Pradesh from 1973-74 to 2015-16 and the results revealed highest growth rate in area of 3.78 percent per annum during P-I in potential areas. The growth rates in production in potential areas showed significant increase, while, marginal areas showed declining growth in all periods except P-II, that exhibit highest growth rates in production (5.86%/annum). Growth rates in productivity showed significant increase in P-II in all the apple growing areas with maximum growth in potential areas (3.88%/annum) except marginal areas that showed significant decline in productivity in P-I and overall period. The decomposition analysis revealed that production variation in all areas in HP during P-I was due to area effect except marginal areas, whereas P-II was marked by yield effect in all apple growing areas on the account of varietal improvement. But, the overall increase in production was due to area expansion except marginal areas. Export trends of apple from India revealed that it is a net importer of apple as a verymeager share only 1.5 per cent of its production base was exported. The 99 per cent of apple is exported to SAARC nations. The results of seasonality analysis revealed that that price seasonality of apple markets varied between 23.43 to 93.26 per cent. The highest seasonal variation was found in Shimla market whereas, lowest in Delhi market. Co integration analysis revealed that the five selected apple markets although geographically dispersed and spatially separated, yet they depict long run price association. As per Pair-wise Granger causality there were unidirectional causality between market pairs; Shimla-Chandigarh, Delhi-Chandigarh wholesale markets and bidirectional causality between Mumbai-Shimla, DelhiShimla, Bengaluru-Shimla and Bengaluru-Chandigarh and no causality between pairs; Delhi-Mumbai, ChandigarhMumbai, Bengaluru-Mumbai and Bengaluru-Delhi. The impulse response function revealed that apple prices in all the markets reacts immediately to the shock by going down initially for 4 to 5 months and then it stabilizes for the remaining period i.e., the process of price transmission was very quick in selected markets. Structure, conduct and performance analysis was also performed for Dhalli, Solan, Chandigarh and Azadpur markets which revealed that Chandigarh and Dhalli markets are highly competitive having GCR of 0.33 and 0.32 respectively, while Delhi and Solan are comparatively less competitive having GCR of 0.51 and 0.56. Market infrastructure index revealed that Azadpur and Chandigarh were found comparatively developed markets with respect to infrastructure as compared to Dhalli and Solan market. Market performance studies revealed that Azadpur market followed by Dhalli market are the more efficient markets as compared to Chandigarh and Solan markets
Open Access
PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF APPLE IN HIMACHAL PRADESH AND JAMMU & KASHMIR - A COMPARATIVE STUDY
(COLLEGE OF FORESTRY DR. YASHWANT SINGH PARMAR UNIVERSITY OF HORTICULTURE AND FORESTRY NAUNI, SOLAN, 2009) ABDUL RAUF; SGARNA, R. L
Open Access
SCOPE OF DIVERSIFICATION OF HILL FARMING SYSTEMS (A CASE STUDY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH)
(DR. YASHWANT SINGH PARMAR UNIVERSITY OF HORTICULTURE AND FORESTRY ; SOLAN, 1997) GUPTA, MANOJ; TEWARI, S. C
Open Access
CONSTRAINTS IN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PANGI TEHSIL IN CHAMBA DISTRICT)
(HIMACHAL PRADESH UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL COMPLEX COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, SOLAN, 1985) OBEROI, RAJESH CHANDER; MOORTI, T. V
Open Access
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MID HIMALAYAN WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROJECT ON AGRICULTURAL FARMS IN HIMACHAL PRADESH
(UHF,NAUNI, 2018-05-24) GULERIA, AMIT; RANDEV, A.K.
ABSTRACT The present study has been carried out in the purposively selected Solan, Sirmour and Mandi districts of the state by selecting randomly a sample of 270 respondents comprising of 180 beneficiaries and 90 nonbeneficiaries, in terms of 2:1 ratio for the comparison of both the categories of respondents. The results revealed that average family size at overall level comprises of 5.54 and 5.44 persons and sex ratio has been found to be 910 and 921 females per thousand males for beneficiary and non-beneficiary farms, respectively. The overall literacy rate has been found to be 91.67 and 89.89 per cent, while literacy index has been worked out to be 2.69 and 2.60 for beneficiary and non-beneficiary farms, respectively. Agriculture has been found to be the main occupation as 72.29 per cent of workforce practice farming on beneficiary farms and 73.95 per cent on nonbeneficiary farms. Average size of land holding has been found to be 1.29 and 1.34 ha on beneficiary and nonbeneficiary farms respectively. The cultivated land and orchard area accounted for 41.62 and 1.65 per cent of total land holding in case of beneficiary farms whereas 33.80 and 0.13 per cent of total land holding for nonbeneficiary farms at overall basis. Irrigated land has been found to be 28.00 and 10.63 per cent of total land holding in case of beneficiary and non-beneficiary farms, respectively. The overall cropping intensity of beneficiary farms has been 196.51 per cent which has been significantly higher than the overall cropping intensity of non-beneficiary farms i.e. 156.96 per cent, indicating a shift towards high-value cash crops and better use of land resources accomplished by more irrigation available on beneficiary farms. Overall adult cattle unit (ASU) has found to be 3.65 on beneficiary farms and 2.86 on non-beneficiary farms. Agriculture sector has contributed a major share in total household income on both types of farms. The Gini Concentration Ratio has lower value (0.3831) for beneficiaries as compared to non-beneficiaries (0.4296), indicating that the income has been found to be more evenly distributed among beneficiaries. Productivity, total household income, gross farm income, net farm income and output input ratio have been found to be higher on beneficiary farms as compared to non-beneficiary farms. Beneficiary farms have utilized more land under high value crops than cereals as compared to non-beneficiary farms. Per hectare utilization of labour, fertilizer, seed and plant protection measures have been found to be lower on beneficiary farms as compared to non-beneficiary farms, whereas, more labour for irrigation has been utilized by beneficiary farms. In functional analysis, the included variables explained 95.0 per cent of variation in major crops for beneficiary and 98.0 percent for non-beneficiary farms in overall category and both types of farms have been operating in increasing return to scale i.e., 1.28 and 1.23 respectively, significant at p<0.01 indicating sub optimal use of most of the inputs. A significant positive difference has been found between beneficiary and non-beneficiary farms as values of dummy variable has worked out to be +0.06 indicating positive contribution of each input added to their gross income by 0.06 per cent. In spite, of the above benefits from the project, beneficiaries encountered some major problems viz. price fluctuations in perishable crops (76.75 %), stray/wild animal menace (72.38 %) and ineffectiveness of gram panchayats (60.56 %). The study has suggested to increase cold storage facility; to frame policy for wild animal menace specially monkey; to provide good extension services and stream line working of gram panchayats.
Open Access
GROWTH AND DIVERSIFICATION OF AGRICULTURE IN MOUNTAIN AREAS: A CASE STUDY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
(UHF,NAUNI, 2018-02) NISHA, DEVI; PRASHER, RAGHBIR SINGH
ABSTRACT “Crop diversification has emerged an important alternative to attain the objectives of output growth, employment generation and natural resources sustainability in the developing countries. The diversification with commercial crops is now a key strategy that can increase agricultural incomes and minimizes risks due to crop failures. The necessary data used in the current study has been collected from two sources. The primary data was collected from the farmers in four districts of Himachal Pradesh, all from different ecological zones and the secondary data has been collected for a period of 38 years from 1972-73 to 2009-10 from various organizations in Himachal Pradesh. Growth rate, Herfindahl Index, Entropy Index, Simpson Index and Multiple step wise linear regression analysis, Garret ranking technique, F-test, Chow test, Coefficient of Variation were implied for the analysis of data. Growth rates estimated for changes in area and production under different fruits and vegetables crops showed a significant positive growth while the productivity of these crops were low and continue to oscillate over a period of time. Analysis of Herfindahl indices over a period from 1972-73 to 2011-12 revealed that Bilaspur, Chamba, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Solan and Una were the districts depicting a trend towards specialized agriculture at varying rates. The values of Herfindahl indices were, however, less than 0.5 for all the districts. On the contrary, Kinnaur, Lahaul & Spiti, Kullu, Shimla and Sirmour witnessed tendency towards diversified agriculture at varying extents. Within crop groups some definite trend of diversification was seen in the vegetable group where the Herfindahl index value has shown a decreasing trend from 0.591 in 1972-73 to 0.205 in 2011-12 indicating thereby the clear trend of diversification. Results of log linear regression analysis showed that in zone-I and II agricultural diversification was positively while in zone-III & IV was negatively related with farm productivity and market problems/integration were negatively related with farm productivity in all the zones. Because the selected districts of Zone-III and IV are already diversified. Lack of irrigation facilities, small land holding, price fluctuation, distant markets, inadequate storage facilities, problem in the availability of water resources and incidence of diseases and insect pests attack were the major constraints related to production, marketing and ecology in the study area which were ranked by Garrett Ranking technique.
Open 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.

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

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