Economics of Farming Systems in Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

newline An attempt has been made in the present study to study the economics of different farming systems in newlineChamba district of Himachal Pradesh.Chamba district is listed as one of the backward districts in the newlinebaseline ranking of transformation of aspirational districts by NITI Aayog. In Chamba district, about newline95.70 per cent of cropped area is rainfed. Thus, farming system approach is seen as a potent means of newlineraising and stabilizing productivity and profitability levels in the rainfed agriculture. Stratified two newlinestage random sampling technique was employed for selecting the sample households. The study was newlinebased on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected from 160 sample households. newlineFurther, the data were analysed by employing appropriate statistical tools in commensuration with the newlineobjectives of the study. Linear programming was employed to develop the optimum farm plans for the newlinestudy area. Income approach was used for the identification of farming systems. Four farming systems newlinewere identified in the study area; cereals based farming system (FS-I), vegetables based farming system newline(FS-II), livestock based farming system (FS-III) and fruits based farming system (FS-IV). The results newlineindicated that with respect to the resource use pattern in different crop groups, the negative gap was newlineobserved in existing seed use pattern for various crops ranging from 19.63 to 236.65 per cent in FS-I, newline8.17 to 170.90 per cent in FS-II, 0.05 to 312.50 per cent in FS-III and 2.67 to 108.66 per cent in FS-IV. newlineThis indicated that growers were using very high seed rate on their farms. In case of fertilisers newlineapplication positive gap was observed ranging from 20 to 100 per cent in FS-I, 20.06 to 89.75 per cent newlinein FS-II, 50.10 to 100 per cent in FS-III, 70.32 to 100 per cent in FS-IV. The gap indicated that farmers newlinewere using very less fertilisers as compared to recommend doses. Productivity related to different farm newlineenterprises was found to be low as compared to optimum yield.In the optimum plan of FS-I, Returns