Agriculture Development in Himachal Pradesh: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh occupies an important place in the national economy whose 89.96 percent of population lives in rural areas (Census 2011).    Agriculture is the main occupation of the people of Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh is almost wholly mountainous with altitudes ranging from 350 meters to 6,975 meters above the mean sea level. The main aim of the paper is to study the productivity under different crops (i.e. food and nonfood grains crops) and to analyze the various programme and policies launched by the government. The study based on secondary data. The per hectare productivity of wheat increase in the different year, slightly it was 1.52 per hectare but it increased to 1.95 per hectare in 2014-2015. The productivity of pluses also increased it was 1.21 per hectare in 2010-2011 but it increased to 1.74 per hectare in 2014-2015. The productivity of total food grains increased from 1.78 per hectare productivity to 2.09 per hectare productivity in 2014-2015. Reasons high varieties of seeds, Irrigation facilities play important role. The per hectare productivity of different fruits highest in Shimla district but lowest in L&Spiti district reason the most of the apples grow in Shimla district because of the favorable climate condition. The main aim of this study is to find out the productivity of different crops in Himachal Pradesh over period 2011-2015.