AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF FARMING SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVING LIVELIHOOD SECURITY OF HILL FARMERS
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Date
2020-12
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NAUNI,UHF
Abstract
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.