Agricultural Diversification in Himachal :
The Turning Point Himachal Pradesh is a small hill state located in the western Himalayas. Ninety percent of its 6.1 million population inhabits over 17000 villages spread over the mountain landscape from low hills to high mountain areas. The dominant features of hill and mountain farming in Himachal Pradesh are small land holdings, sloping marginal farmlands and cultivation under rain fed farming. Subsistence farming on these farmlands was a dominating feature until the past decade. Since then a wave of change is underway towards diversification to high value cash crops. As a result the State is now known for Rs. 700 crores of fruit and off season vegetable production. Because of this diversification, one can already find successful examples of improved livelihoods in small pockets across different agro-ecological zones of the State. However, the present agricultural diversification is already facing second generation problems and this challenge of sustaining and widening benefits of hill agricultural diversification is beset with range of new problems highlighted by the stakeholders.
Read more: http://hillagric.ac.in/info/publication/himfarm.pdf
Original link : http://hillagric.ac.in/
