ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF NATURAL FARMING IN SIRMAUR DISTRICT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
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Date
2020-11
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NAUNI,UHF
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present study entitled “Economic Analysis of Natural Farming in Sirmaur District of Himachal
Pradesh” was carried out in Sirmour district. A sample of 60 farmers practicing natural farming was selected using
simple random sampling. Results of the study revealed that literacy rate was 95.30 percent in males and 76.90 in
females and literacy index was 2.8 in males and 2.1 in females. Average land holding was 0.82 ha out of which
natural farming area was 0.39 ha in the sampled farms. Under natural farming the major crop combinations adopted
by farmers in Kharif season were cereals-vegetables (0.13 ha) followed by cereals–vegetables-pulses (0.10 ha),
vegetables (0.10 ha) and sugarcane-vegetables-turmeric and in Rabi season cereals-vegetables (0.15 ha) followed by
cereals-vegetables-oil seed crops (0.14 ha) and cereals–vegetables-pulses (0.08 ha). Under natural farming cost of
cultivation in Kharif season was Rs. 62981.6/ha in cereals-vegetables-pulses, Rs.90395.7/ha in cereals-vegetables
crop combination, Rs. 111252.26/ha in vegetables & Rs. 70472.73/ha in sugarcane-vegetables-turmeric and in Rabi
season, cost of cultivation was Rs. 58244/ha in cereals-vegetables-pulses, Rs. 54870/ha in cereals-vegetables and Rs.
49886/ha in cereals-vegetables- oil seed crops. Under natural farming, the CEY in Kharif season was 74.32 q/ha in
cereals-vegetables-pulses, 78.65 q/ha in cereals-vegetables, 142.63q/ha in vegetables and 1308.09 q/ha insugarcanevegetables-turmeric
and in Rabi season the CEY was 65.99 q/ha in cereals-vegetables-pulses, 66.75 q/ha in cerealsvegetables
and 40.51 q/ha in cereals-vegetables- oil seed crops. In Rabi season, under natural farming it has been
observed that the per cent increase in the yield in comparison to conventional farming was highest in cerealsvegetables-pulses
(157%) followed by cereals-vegetables- oil seed crops (85%) and cereals-vegetables (10%) and in
Kharif season, the per cent increase was highest in vegetables (66%) followed by sugarcane-vegetables-turmeric
(61%), cereals-vegetables (25%), cereals-vegetables-pulses (14%). In Kharif season, the REE (Relative Economic
Efficiency) of natural farming system was highest in vegetables (99 %) followed by sugarcane-vegetables-turmeric
(92%), cereals-vegetables-pulses (85%) and cereals-vegetables (30%) and in Rabi season, REE of natural farming
system was highest in cereals-vegetables-pulses (570%) followed by cereals-vegetables (-7%) and cerealsvegetables-
oil seed crops (-34.31%) in comparison to conventional farming. In natural farming and conventional
farming systems the sum of the elasticity coefficient were found greater than one, indicated increasing returns to
scale. The factor-price ratio was more than one in variables Jivamrit, Ghanjivamrit, Agniastra and seed in natural
farming, which showed that the resources were at under utilization level. The non-availability of specialised market
was ranked I problem with the 33.59 Garret mean score followed by labour intensive problem (II), unfair price for
produce in market (III) and high wage rates (IV). The disease occurrence in the natural farming system was ranked
least problem(15th) which means natural farming is successful in controlling diseases infarming field