Economic analysis of sustainable farming method in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh is a mountainous province of India situated in the Himalaya region, Himalayan region has rich biodiversity and is an economically important region of India. Most of the population in this region lives in rural areas and livelihood mainly depend upon agriculture, whereas most of the farmers are small and marginal, such as 89 per cent population of Himachal Pradesh lives in rural area and 87 per cent of farmers are marginal and small also 65 per cent of the workforce of the total population are involved in agricultural allied sectors. For the development of agriculture and rural economy an initiative has been taken to promote sustainable agricultural practices in Himachal Pradesh by promotion for natural farming. The current study was conducted in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, with a sample of 60 farmers using simple random sampling. The study mainly focused on the NF cropping system, which claims to contribute to sustainable agriculture (Agro ecology) in many ways i.e., climate resilient farming, livestock friendly, soil health, healthy nutritious food, chemical free farming and sustainable farming. NF is also reported as the most cost-effective farming and also known as “Zero Budget Natural Farming.” NF focuses mainly on lowering agricultural costs, improving food quality, chemical-free food, soil fertility and food & nutritional security. As a result, it is essential to determine the economic evaluation of crop production in terms of Natural Farming and Chemical Farming techniques in order to enable farmers to embrace sustainable farming. Therefore, the comparative economics of Natural Farming and Chemical Farming (Conventional Farming) and resource use efficiency were analysed. From the sample study, it has been found that the major crops grown under NF crop combination were Cereals-Pulses-Vegetables (Kharif 14% and Rabi 157%), Cereals-Vegetables (Kharif 25% and Rabi 14%), Vegetables (107%), Sugarcane-Vegetables-Turmeric (92%) and Cereals-Vegetables-Oil (124%) had high Crop Equivalent Yield (CEY) as compared to CF crops also NF Farmers received high returns per hectare. NF farmers were using resources very efficiently, which indicates that there is still a possibility of a rise in income from the adoption of natural farming through the use of own capital and a stronger marketing method. It can be concluded that cultivation by natural farming methods has been found to be productive.