Development of Apple Cultivation Vis-a-Vis Other Fruit Crops in Himachal Pradesh, India: A Geographical Analysis

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh is acknowledged producing excellent quality of apple- a temperate fruit, other temperate fruits like peach, plum, apricot, pear, stone fruits and nuts. It also grows sub-tropical fruits like guava, litchi, papaya, mango and citrus fruits. The present study aims at evaluating and comparing the trends in area, production and yield of apple and fruits other than apple along with total fruits in Himachal Pradesh state of India. The district constitutes basic unit of observation for the present study. The study is based on secondary data collected for three time periods i.e. 1986–1989, 1996–1999 and 2006–2009. The compound annual growth rate has also been computed for assessing the trends in acreage, production and yield of different fruit crops. The development pattern of fruit crops has been shown with the help of choropleth maps. It has been inferred from the study that apple is dominant fruit crop both in terms of production and yield level over the other fruits in Himachal Pradesh. It accounts about 80 % of total fruits production in the state. However, the area under other fruits is more than the apple, so there are vast potentials to develop these fruits in the state.