1.
INTRODUCTION
General
Information:
Agro and Sub Agro-Climatic Zones:
Land Holdings:
Cropping Pattern:
Scope of Farm Mechanization:
(a)
General Information:
Himachal Pradesh is a
northern State and situated the southern of the mighty Himalayas.
The State is bordered by Jammu & Kashmir on North, Punjab on West and
South-West, Haryana on South, Uttar Pradesh on
South-East and China
on the East. Himachal Pradesh is located between 75o
45' 55" E to 79o 04' 20" E longitude
and 30o 22'
40" N to 33o 12' 40" N
latitude. The height from the mean sea level varies from 350 to 6975 meters.
Himachal Pradesh
has one of the highest per capita incomes of any state in India. Due to the abundance of
perennial rivers, Himachal also sells hydro
electricity to other states, such as Delhi, Punjab
& Rajasthan
The economy of the state is highly dependent on three sources: hydroelectric
power, tourism and agriculture. Himachal is also said
to be the fruit bowl of the country with orchards scattered all over the place.
Meadows and pastures are also seen clinging to steep slopes. An area of 2.13 million
hectare is covered by forests. For administrative purposes, the state is
divided into 52 sub-divisions, 75 blocks, 20118 villages and 57 towns. The
population of Himachal Pradesh in 2001 was 6,077,248 comprising
of 3,085,256 males and 2,991,992 females. It formed 0.59% of India’s population. Population
density in the State was 109/km2.
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(b)
Agro and Sub Agro-Climatic Zones:
The
State Himachal Pradesh falls under the High Hill Temperate Sub-zone under the agro-climatic
zone- I i.e. Western Himalayan Region This sub-zone consists of two distinct
regions—the High Hill Temperate and the Hill Temperate. The High Hill Temperate
region comprises of only two sparsely populated districts—Lahul
and Spiti and Kinnaur in
north Himachal Pradesh. The population is largely
tribal and the land is mostly fallow. Only seventy per cent of the area is
under forest cover and about thirty per cent is cultivated. Compared to the
lower and middle hill regions, this region has better irrigation facilities.
The pre-dominant source of irrigation is the khul.
There is about 800 mm
of rains in a year and the soil is mountainous and skeletal. Farming is
practiced mostly on steep slopes without much soil conservation measures
leading to heavy soil erosion. The Hill Temperate region in this sub-zone
covers the better part of the State of
Himachal Pradesh-Nearly two
thirds of the geographical area falls under this region. It covers the
districts of Bilaspur, Chamba,
Hamirpur, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla,
Sirmaur, Solan and Una. About a fifth of the land is cultivated and nearly 31%
is under forests. Nearly 40% of the geographical area is available for
cultivation. Only about 12% of the net sown area is irrigated. The major source
of irrigation is the khul. The climate is
humid and sub temperate and the average annual rainfall is 1,300 mm. About three-fourths
of the normal precipitation is from the South-west monsoon during June to
September. The winter and pre-monsoon showers are also significant with a
precipitation of between 150–175 mm in each of these two seasons. The soil is
largely brown alluvial.
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(c) Climate:
There is
great variation in the climatic conditions of Himachal
due to extreme variation in elevation. The climate varies from hot and
sub-humid tropical in the southern tracts to cold, alpine and glacial in the
northern and eastern mountain ranges with higher elevation. The state has areas
like Dharamsala that receive very heavy rainfall, as well as
those like Lahaul and Spiti that are cold and almost rainless. Broadly Himachal experience three seasons; hot weather season, cold
weather season and rainy season. Summer lasts from mid April till the end of
June and most parts become very hot (except in alpine
zone which experience mild summer) with the average temperature
ranging from 28 °C (82 °F) to 32 °C
(90 °F).
Winter lasts from late November till mid March. Snowfall is
common in alpine tracts (generally above 2,200 metres i.e. in the Higher and Trans-Himalayan
region).
(d)
Land Holdings:
The total geographical area of Himachal
Pradesh is 5.5673 million hectare and the area
under forest is 3.70 million
hectare. The cultivable area is 620700 hectare and the net area sown is 594094 hectare. The gross cropped area is 1039552 hectare
and the area sown more than once is 4.042 lakh hectare with the cropping intensity of 169%. The net irrigated
area is 109452 hectare
(By canals- 2.75 %, By wells and tube wells- 18.9% and by others – 78.4%). The
gross irrigated area is 181000
hectare and the percentage of net irrigated sown area is
18.4%. The total number of land
holdings are 933383 out of which 636619 (68.2%)
are marginal farmers, 175651 (18.8%) small farmers and 121113 (13.0%) farmers
hold land above 2 hectare.
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(e) Cropping Pattern:
The
major portion of the revenue earning in the state's economy is carried out by
the cash crops in the Himachal Pradesh. The chief food crops cultivated include
wheat, maize, rice, barley, seed-potato, ginger, vegetables, vegetable seeds,
mushrooms, chicory seeds, hops, olives, and fig. Himachal
Pradesh is also known as the 'Apple
State of India' for its large-scale
production of fruits. Farmers have engaged themselves highly in the fruit
cultivation and it is also a great blessing to the economy of the state. The
agricultural sector of Himachal Pradesh has adopted a
diversification approach that demands for a focus on the production of
off-season vegetables that include potato, ginger, soybean, oilseeds, and
pulses. At present, about 41,500 hectare area constitutes vegetable
production and the production level of those vegetables is 7.85 lakh tonne. The farmers focus
more upon generating the cash crops for more revenue earning as it suits the
agro-climactic conditions in Himachal Pradesh. The main cereals cultivated in Himachal Pradesh are wheat, maize, rice, and barley. Kangra, Mandi district and to
some extent Paonta
valley of Sirmur district are the major
producers of wheat, maize, and rice. Barley is cultivated largely in Shimla district.
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(f) Scope of Farm
Mechanization:
Himachal Pradesh is a hilly
state which provides favourable environment for
raising almost all types of agricultural and horticultural crops due to widely
varied micro-agro-climatic regions of the state. But the farm mechanization in
the state is very poor in terms of mechanical power, efficient implements, land
reclamation, water management, renewable energy and post- harvest activities.
The mechanization is badly hampered by stepped, small and irregular fields,
undulating topography, lack of adequate agricultural engineers and skilled
manpower, poor facilities of repair, maintenance and manufacture of implements
and high cost solar gadgets. Despite various limitations and constraints, there
is a great scope to increase productivity of land and farmers economy by
creating small water resources for increasing irrigated areas, land development,
use of efficient farm power and implements, harnessing more rainwater,
disseminating renewable energy gadgets and introducing small scale agro-based
industries employing post harvest engineering principles.
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