ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF LAND AND WATER RESOURCES IN MID HIMALAYAN AREAS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH-INDIA
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Date
2021-09
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UHF,NAUNI
Abstract
ABSTRACT
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.