ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MID HIMALAYAN WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROJECT ON AGRICULTURAL FARMS IN HIMACHAL PRADESH
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Date
2018-05-24
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UHF,NAUNI
Abstract
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.
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