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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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ThesisItem Open Access ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF LAND AND WATER RESOURCES IN MID HIMALAYAN AREAS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH-INDIA(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-09) KAPIL DEV; SHARMA, RAVINDERABSTRACT The present study entitled “Economics of sustainable management of land and water resources in Mid Himalayan areas of Himachal Pradesh-India” was carried out in the purposively selected Sirmaur, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Chamba and Kullu districts of the state. Multistage random sampling technique was used to obtain the representative sample of 280 respondents comprising of 140 adopters and 140 non-adopter respondents from selected districts. Results revealed that average family size at overall level comprises of 5.74 and 5.57 persons for adopters and nonadopters farms, respectively. The overall literacy rate was found to be 87.91 and 89.14 per cent, while literacy index were worked out to be 2.61 and 2.81 for adopters and non-adopters farms, respectively. Agriculture was found to be the main occupation as 69.26 per cent of workforce practice farming on adopter farms and 66.55 per cent on non-adopter farms. Overall adult cattle unit was found to be 3.60 on adopter farms and 2.21 on non-adopter farms. The average size of total land holding was found to be 1.22 ha and 1.16 ha on adopters non-adopters. The cultivated area and orchard area accounted for 50.74 and 22.35 per cent of the total land holding in case of adopter farms whereas 42.10 and 21.28 per cent for non-adopter farms at overall basis. The irrigated land was found to be 37.62 and 16.39 per cent of total land holding in case of the adopter and non-adopters farms, respectively. Overall cropping intensity with and without orchard area of adopter farms was found to be 160.22 and 186.76 per cent which was significantly higher than the overall cropping intensity with and without orchard area of non-adopter farm i.e., 149.18 and 174.04 per cent, indicating a shift towards high value cash crops and better use of land and water resources. The average value of Simpson index in adopter and non-adopter farms were estimated as 0.85 and 0.77 respectively at overall level, which indicated that the adopter farms were found more diversified as compared to nonadopter farms. Crop yield index value of adopter farms was higher than the non-adopter farms. Productivity, gross farm income, net farm income and output input ratio have been found to be higher on adopter farms as compared to non-adopter farms. The wages and salaries contributed the most to overall household income on both type of farms followed by agriculture and horticulture, respectively. The Gini index of total income for adopter farms (0.221) is higher than that of nonadopter farms (0.206), indicating that the income of households has been found to be more unevenly distributed in adopter farms as compared to non-adopter farms. In functional analysis, the included variables explained 95 per cent of variation in major agricultural crops for adopters and 97 per cent for non-adopters in overall farm category which were found to be significant for both type of farms and both type of farms were found decreasing return to scale (<1) indicating over optimal use of all the inputs which needs to be increased in order to achieve higher levels of input efficiency, which will lead to higher levels of net profits in the study area. Mean technical efficiencies of the adopters and non-respondents respondents were found to be 83 and 79 per cent. Thus, there is a potential for adopters and non-adopters respondents to increase their efficiency by 17 and 21 per cent, if they use their existing farm resources efficiently. In tobit regression, among included variables rainfall, area, literacy index and crop yield index showed a positive relationship with the dependent variable and significantly influenced the resource use efficiency while temperature and crop diversification were found negative relationship with the dependent variables on adopters and rainfall, temperature, area, literacy index and crop yield index showed a positive relationship with the dependent variable and significantly influenced the resource use efficiency while crop diversification was found negative relationship with the dependent variables on non-adopter farms. Major problems of adopter farmers in producing agricultural crops were found to be lack of appropriate prices of produce with garret mean score 6.42 per cent followed by high commission and cost of inputs (6.21 %), lack of transport facilities (6.10 %), whereas that on non-adopter farms were high commission and cost of inputs with garret mean score 6.23 per cent followed by lack of knowledge regarding recommended practices for crops and livestock (6.16 %), untimely availability and insufficient amount of irrigation water (6.09 %). Study suggested that the farmers involved in agriculture farming in the study area should be provided with additional proper technical knowledge for optimum utilization of resources which would help to increase the production and return of major agricultural crops.ThesisItem Open Access COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS OF PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL VEGETABLES FARMING IN HIMACHAL PRADESH(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-09) SHAMINDER KUMAR; PRASHER, R SABSTRACT The present study entitled “Comparative Economics of Production and Marketing of Organic and Conventional Vegetables Farming in Himachal Pradesh” was carried out in Solan, Shimla and Sirmour districts of Himachal Pradesh. A total sample of 240 vegetable farmers was taken using multistage simple random sampling technique which included 120 farmers each under organic and conventional farming system. The farmers were categorized on the basis of their total land holding as marginal (2 ha). Markets, namely Solan, Delhi, Chandigarh and Dhali were purposively selected to collect the information related to marketing of organic produce. A sample of 15 local traders/commission agents, 15 wholesalers, 15 retailers, 30 consumers were selected randomly for gathering the data of vegetable marketing from selected districts. It was found that the total cost of cultivation per hectare among organic vegetables was Rs. 235761 for tomato, Rs. 204676 for capsicum, Rs. 106667 for pea and Rs. 112803 for bean, respectively. Whereas, in conventional farming, total cost of cultivation was found Rs. 199799 for tomato, Rs. 169317 for capsicum, Rs. 98375 for pea and Rs. 102272 for bean, respectively. These results revealed that gross returns and net returns were more in organic vegetable farming as compared to conventional farming system. It was also found that human labour was more employed in organic farming as compared to conventional farming system. The results related to resource use efficiency revealed that elasticity coefficient of human family labour (0.27), human hired labour (0.02), farmyard manure (0.48), and plant protection (0.24) were statistically significant and positive in organic tomato crop, whereas, elasticity coefficients of human family labour (0.86), farmyard manure (0.11), fertilizer (0.13), and plant protection (0.45) were observed to be statistically significant in case of conventional tomato crop. For organic capsicum, human family labour (0.44), farmyard manure (0.13) and plant protection (0.52) were significantly affecting the gross returns, whereas, under conventional capsicum, seed (0.11), farmyard manure (0.18), fertilizer (0.47) and plant protection (0.20) were observed to be statistically significant and positive. Similarly, under organic pea crop, coefficient of farmyard manure (0.30), fertilizer (0.52) and plant protection (0.37) were observed to be statistically significant and positive, whereas, under conventional pea cultivation, human family labour (0.23), seed (0.63), fertilizer (0.31) and plant protection (0.17) were observed to be statistically significant and positive. For organic bean, elasticity of human family labour (0.27), seed (0.50) and farmyard manure (0.31) were observed to be statistically significant and positive, whereas, under conventional bean crop cultivation, human family labour (0.28), farmyard manure (0.36), fertilizer (0.31) and plant protection (0.41) were observed to be statistically significant and positive. Four channels were identified in the marketing system of selected organic vegetables in the study area. Out of those four channels, Channel-C (Producer- Local Trader/Commission agent -Wholesaler-Retailer- Consumer) was found most preferred channel by the sampled organic vegetable growers since 44.23, 43.21, 42.06 and 40.91 per cent of tomato, capsicum, pea and bean were traded through this channel, respectively. The second important channel followed by the growers was Channel-B (Producer-Wholesaler-Retailer-Consumer). The major constraints experienced by the organic farmers in the study area were small land holding, high incidence of pest and diseases, lack of minimum support price, lack of market exclusively for organic produce, less erratic monsoon, fluctuation in temperature and humidity and wild animals menaceThesisItem Open Access ECONOMIC IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND VULNERABILITY ON HORTICULTURE IN TEMPERATE REGION OF HIMACHAL PRADESH(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-09) SAMRITI; SHARMA, RAVINDERABSTRACT The present study has been carried out in the temperate region of Himachal Pradesh to assess the vulnerability to climate change on horticulture. Iyengar and Sudarshan method was used for the construction of vulnerability indices. Pooh block of Kinnaur district was found to be highest vulnerable block and Mashobra block of Shimla district was lowest vulnerable block among 28 selected blocks for the period 1985-2018. Annual rainfall had shown a positive trend (S) in Lahaul & Spiti and negative in Chamba district. The highest variation in minimum temperature was found in Lahual & Spiti (4.64 %) and minimum variation in Shimla district (2.63%). Maximum temperature had shown positive and significant trend in Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur district for the period 1985-2018. Out of the 28 blocks in temperate region, 13 blocks (46.43 %) with the dominant horticulture practices were selected under three categories i.e., low, moderate and high. Stratified random sampling technique was used for the selection of sample of 312 farmers for the present study. The results revealed that average family size in the temperate region was 5.46 persons, with 50.63 per cent of males and 49.37 percent of females. The literacy rate in three zones ranged from 92.58 to 95.15 percent, with an overall literacy rate of 94.10 per cent in the temperate region. Agriculture was found to be the most common occupation in the temperate region with 76.44 per cent of sampled farmers engaged in it. The cow rearing (64.73 %) was found most common followed by sheep and goat (16.22 %) in the study area. Average operational holding in temperate region was 0.91 hectares, out of which 46.13 per cent was irrigated and 53.87 unirrigated. Cropping intensity including orchards was worked out to be 132.34 per cent, whereas, it was 173.75 per cent excluding orchard area in the temperate region. The CLUI for all the vulnerable zones was found less than one which indicated that land was underutilized or remained fallow for the given time period. The Simpsons Index for different crop groups was worked out to be 0.62 in the temperate region. Mainly pea, potato, cauliflower and apple were the major cash crops in the temperate region. The results related to impact of climate change stated that potato was most susceptible crop to changing climatic pattern in low vulnerable zone, whereas, pea was most affected vegetable crop in moderate and high vulnerable zone of temperate region for the study year. The significant and negative impact of climatic variables on net revenue from apple has been found highest in low vulnerable zone and lowest in moderate vulnerable zone of temperate region. Markov chain analysis has been done to study the shift in the cultivable area under different crops and it was found that farmers are shifting toward fruit and vegetables in high hills over the period 1985-2018 due to availability of favorable climatic conditions, as they are able to get good returns. Optimal crop switching, change in cropping calendar, improvement in irrigation practices and crop diversification are the major adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers in the temperate region to mitigate the impact of climate change. However, farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change has been challenged by numerous barriers and high cost of adaptation, lack of access to improved varieties and technologies and limited knowledge on adaptation measures are the main barriers affecting the adaptation measures to climate change in the temperate region.ThesisItem Open Access ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF RESOURCE USE PRODUCTIVITY IN MUSHROOM FARMING IN HIMACHAL PRADESH(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-07) KAYASTHA, RATIKA; KAYASTHA, RATIKA; VAIDYA, MANOJ KUMAR; VAIDYA, MANOJ KUMARABSTRACT The present study entitled “Economic Assessment of Resource use productivity in Mushroom Farming in Himachal Pradesh was carried out in Kangra, Solan, Shimla and Mandi districts of the state. Simple Random sampling technique was used to select 215 mushroom growers from the selected districts. Cumulative cube root frequency (Singh and Mangat, 1995) was used for the construction of strata. The mushroom growers were classified into three categories on the basis of number of bags viz., small category (≤245), medium category (246-790) and large category (>790). Eight spawn producers were also selected from different selected districts in the study area. Main local markets in the study area districts were selected for conducting marketing study. A total sample of 5 wholesalers/commission agents and 5 retail sellers were selected randomly. Results revealed that average family size of selected farm families at overall level comprises of 4.58. The overall literacy rate was found to be 79.73 per cent, while literacy index were worked out to be 2.77 indicating average quality of education. Agriculture was found to be the main occupation as 80.10 per cent of workforce practice farming at overall farm category level. The average size of total land holding at overall level was found to be 0.94 ha which vary between 0.62 ha in small category to 1.32 ha in large category. Overall cropping intensity was found to 175.76 per cent. Mushroom contributed maximum share in the total farm income (34.78%) at overall category level, while it was observed highest of (46.76%) in case of large category. The cost of 1 quintal spawn production varied between Rs. 12293.63 for white button and Rs. 12000.07 for oyster mushroom. At overall basis, the cost of cultivation of white button mushroom per 100 bags basis found to be Rs. 19457.83, while for oyster mushroom it was found to be Rs. 14323.64. The net returns per 100 bags were estimated to be Rs. 16440.39 and Rs. 10443.77 at overall level. The output-input ratios were observed to be 1.84 and 1.73 in case of white button mushroom and oyster mushroom respectively. Results indicated that cultivation of white button mushroom and oyster mushroom in the study area is a profitable venture. It has been observed that at overall level, the value of ‘r’ for fixed capital, working capital and human labour in case of white button mushroom was greater than unity indicating underutilization of these resources and increase in their use would increase production. Similarly in case of oyster mushroom the value of ‘r’ for fixed capital was lesser than unity, which means overutilization of this resource and reduction in its use would increase production. The optimum plan was developed for existing mushroom cultivation in the study area which revealed the possibility of increasing the farm profitability by optimum utilization of the available resources. The mean technical efficiency was observed 80 per cent in case of white button mushroom and 79 per cent in case of oyster mushroom, which indicated that on an average only 20 per cent and 21 per cent respectively of the mushroom growers fell short of maximum possible frontier level of technology. The socio-economic characteristics of the variables such as education, experience, household size and managerial skill index have significant impact on technical efficiency. Four marketing channels were found prevalent in the study area for marketing of white button mushroom. Among these Channel –B, consisting Producer-Retailer- Consumer was found to be most preferred as 42.80 per cent of the quantity was marketed through this channel. In case of oyster mushroom, Channel –A i.e. Producer-Consumer was found to be most preferred as 36.03 per cent of the mushroom was marketed through this channel in the study area. The findings of the study recommend optimum resource utilization so that desired growth in mushroom cultivation and production can be achievedThesisItem Open Access ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF RESOURCE USE PRODUCTIVITY IN MUSHROOM FARMING IN HIMACHAL PRADESH(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-07) PARDEEP SINGH; VAIDYA, MANOJ KUMARABSTRACT The present study entitled “Economic Assessment of Resource use productivity in Mushroom Farming in Himachal Pradesh was carried out in Kangra, Solan, Shimla and Mandi districts of the state. Simple Random sampling technique was used to select 215 mushroom growers from the selected districts. Cumulative cube root frequency (Singh and Mangat, 1995) was used for the construction of strata. The mushroom growers were classified into three categories on the basis of number of bags viz., small category (≤245), medium category (246-790) and large category (>790). Eight spawn producers were also selected from different selected districts in the study area. Main local markets in the study area districts were selected for conducting marketing study. A total sample of 5 wholesalers/commission agents and 5 retail sellers were selected randomly. Results revealed that average family size of selected farm families at overall level comprises of 4.58. The overall literacy rate was found to be 79.73 per cent, while literacy index were worked out to be 2.77 indicating average quality of education. Agriculture was found to be the main occupation as 80.10 per cent of workforce practice farming at overall farm category level. The average size of total land holding at overall level was found to be 0.94 ha which vary between 0.62 ha in small category to 1.32 ha in large category. Overall cropping intensity was found to 175.76 per cent. Mushroom contributed maximum share in the total farm income (34.78%) at overall category level, while it was observed highest of (46.76%) in case of large category. The cost of 1 quintal spawn production varied between Rs. 12293.63 for white button and Rs. 12000.07 for oyster mushroom. At overall basis, the cost of cultivation of white button mushroom per 100 bags basis found to be Rs. 19457.83, while for oyster mushroom it was found to be Rs. 14323.64. The net returns per 100 bags were estimated to be Rs. 16440.39 and Rs. 10443.77 at overall level. The output-input ratios were observed to be 1.84 and 1.73 in case of white button mushroom and oyster mushroom respectively. Results indicated that cultivation of white button mushroom and oyster mushroom in the study area is a profitable venture. It has been observed that at overall level, the value of ‘r’ for fixed capital, working capital and human labour in case of white button mushroom was greater than unity indicating underutilization of these resources and increase in their use would increase production. Similarly in case of oyster mushroom the value of ‘r’ for fixed capital was lesser than unity, which means overutilization of this resource and reduction in its use would increase production. The optimum plan was developed for existing mushroom cultivation in the study area which revealed the possibility of increasing the farm profitability by optimum utilization of the available resources. The mean technical efficiency was observed 80 per cent in case of white button mushroom and 79 per cent in case of oyster mushroom, which indicated that on an average only 20 per cent and 21 per cent respectively of the mushroom growers fell short of maximum possible frontier level of technology. The socio-economic characteristics of the variables such as education, experience, household size and managerial skill index have significant impact on technical efficiency. Four marketing channels were found prevalent in the study area for marketing of white button mushroom. Among these Channel –B, consisting Producer-Retailer- Consumer was found to be most preferred as 42.80 per cent of the quantity was marketed through this channel. In case of oyster mushroom, Channel –A i.e. Producer-Consumer was found to be most preferred as 36.03 per cent of the mushroom was marketed through this channel in the study area. The findings of the study recommend optimum resource utilization so that desired growth in mushroom cultivation and production can be achieved.ThesisItem Open Access AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO CONSTRUCTION OF STRATA IN CASE OF SENSITIVE VARIABLE(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-07) DEJEN AGEGNEHU; MAHAJAN, P KIn stratified random sampling, a proper choice of strata boundaries is one of the important factors as regards to the efficiency of estimator of the population characteristic under study. Mahajan et al. (1994, 1997) considered the problem of finding optimum strata boundaries when the samples from different strata are selected with SRSWR and the data are collected by scrambled randomized response technique on the sensitive character. Keeping in view, the present study, an attempt has been made to propose an alternative method for the determination of Optimum Strata Boundaries (OSB) under equal and Neyman allocations as well as PPS-WR sampling and Ratio & Regression estimation methods for scrambled response. Thus, the optional randomized response model Z = Y. Sk, where k is a random variable having values 1 if the response is scrambled and 0 otherwise, was considered for finding out Approximate Optimum Strata Boundaries (AOSB) by minimizing the variance of the estimator 𝑦̅𝑠𝑡 . The total four rules are proposed and a limiting expression for the variance of the estimator of population mean have also been suggested. Therefore, if there have high values of the sensitivity level (p) in the scrambled randomised response, proposed rule with the ratio and regression estimation methods are appropriate for stratification of optimal boundary. Whereas, if there have a lower value of the sensitivity level of the scrambled randomized response, the proposed rule in equal allocation followed by Neyman allocation are convenient for stratification of optimum strata boundary. However, using the proposed rules, the comparison of relative efficiency of stratification over no stratification and determination of approximate optimum sample size [nh] for different number of strata have been providedThesisItem Open Access ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PADDY PRODUCTION IN LAKE ZONE OF TANZANIA(UHF,NAUNI, 2021-01) JAMES NKWABI; SHARMA, RAVINDERABSTRACT Economic analysis of Paddy Production in Lake Zone was conducted to examine the existing socio-economic status and tosocio-economic status along with the factors affecting paddy production. Multistage random sampling technique was used to obtain the representative sample of 265 households from Lake Zone. Results revealed the dominance of male household heads as 87.13 per cent of selected HHs were males and 12.87 per cent females. It was found that the literacy rate varied from97.14 to65.67 per cent among the selected HHs with an average literacy rate of 85.28 per cent, however, the value of literacy index was only1.20 highlighting poor quality of education in the Lake Zone area. The average size of land holdings varied between 6.21 to 19.63 acres with an average of 11.63 acre. Majority of paddy farmers (84.25%) used local varieties which have long grains size good aroma, taste and higher market preference .Study revealed that area, paddy seed, and variety, fertilizer and irrigation were found significantly affecting paddy production. It was observed that paddy farmers in study area mostly depend on area expansion to increase paddy production in Lake Zone of Tanzania. The technical efficiency in paddy production varied between 25 to 82 per cent with an average efficiency of 58 per cent. However, technical efficiency varied between the selected districts. Important factors affecting technical inefficiency in Lake Zone were, age, education, off farm income, experience, gender and interaction between extension and education. Experience of paddy farmers (-0.34) revealed to play a major role in reduction of inefficiency for paddy farmers in Lake Zone followed by interaction between extension and education (-0.17). The major production challenges found were drought faced 89.81 per cent of paddy farmers followed by pests (34.34 %), shortage of inputs (31.32 %) and diseases. Thus variations in productivity among paddy farmers were due to differences in efficiency which was affected by various farm specific socio-economic factors. Location specific results indicated that in all the selected districts variations between potential and observed output was due to the technical inefficiencies as technical efficiency ranged from 26 per cent to 82 per cent.