Regional imbalances and sustainable crop farming in the Uttaranchal Himalaya, India

Abstract

In Uttaranchal state of the Indian Himalayas, where population pressure continues to increase, significant agro-ecological features of rainfed hill crop farming include continuously changing land use patterns, high cropping intensity (161%), the dominance (>70%) of small size landholdings (<1 hectare (ha)) and scarcity of arable land (0.10–0.15 ha capita −1). Using various agricultural regionalization techniques, cropping patterns and their productivity have been analyzed by different methods to ascertain regional imbalances and gaps in the spatio-temporal distribution of sustainable crop systems. While there are various cropping patterns in the study area—a wheat–paddy combination, involving the two important staple crops is dominant in six of the eight districts analyzed. In some other districts, a few other crops have very high concentration. Crop diversity as a whole is low in the Uttaranchal Himalaya. Regarding crop productivity, five districts out of eight can support only five persons ha −1, as measured by the standard nutrition units (SNUs) per ha, which is below the sustenance level. These five districts have been identified as the weakest productive regions of the study region and require additional development attention. SNUs per person are poor in the same regions of the hills, with the exception of Nainital district. The Kumaun region of Uttaranchal, which has a relatively moderate topography compared to the Garhwal, hill region is productive enough to nearly provide adequate food for its people.