Cropping Pattern, Diversification and Concentration of Crops: Some Evidence from Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Diversification of crops is regarded as an appropriate strategy to raise farm income, generate employment, poverty alleviation, conservation of precious soil and water resources, mitigating crop risk etc. In this backdrop, the purpose of the present study is to make detailed analysis of cropping pattern at the state as well as districtlevel with a view to bringing out the areal concentration and diversification of crops in the state of Himachal Pradesh. With the help of various tools like proportion of area under crops, Berry's index, Theil's Entropy Index, Location Quotient (LQ) method, the study reveals that the dominance of food grain crops in terms of acreage allocation has reduced marginally by 3.7 Per cent whereas it has increased in case of high value crops like fruits (dry +fresh), vegetables and other food crops (sugarcane, ginger, garlic, chilies, turmeric, onion etc.) during the study period at the state level. The empirical results shows that crop diversification in the state has been persisting since the beginning of the period of study, however reallocation of land towards high value crops has been taking place continuously at the macro level. Further, it is also clear from the analysis of regional concentration of crops that crops of high value have more concentration in the districts of Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Kullu, Lahul & Spiti, and Kinnaur as compared to district Bilaspur, Mandi, Hamirpur and Kangra(having more fertile and plain area). In view of this, the present study has an important policy implications for evolving a suitable cropping pattern to raise the crop income in the state through motivating the farmers to produce high value crops, providing critical infrastructure, policy for stray-cattle, coordinated approach by all departments dealing with agricultural issues, adoption of villages etc.