Land Utilization and Cropping Pattern in Himachal Pradesh

Since the agricultural sector accounts for the lions share in the Net State Domestic Product and employs more than two third of the working population, its growth is vital for the growth of the State economy and consequently, the socio economic upliftment of the rural masses. From this perspective, it is interesting to make a critical appraisal of the changing profile of agriculture in Himachal Pradesh. The present section gives an account of the changes in agriculture sector of Himachal Pradesh. A change in cropping patterns has been taking place in the State as elsewhere in the country. The shift in cropping pattern is normally advantageous and indicates a dynamic economy. The change depends upon the crops involved and the multifarious stimuli such as the changing economic, technological, and institutional factors. Food crops include cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruit crops, and spices together accounted for 96.00 per cent of the total cropped area while non food crops shared the remaining. The area under fruit crops registered the highest increase i.e. 1.3 per cent in 1970 71 to 8.03 per cent in 2019 2020 followed by wheat, vegetables, maize, and spices. However, the area under two principal cereal crops i.e. paddy, barley, pulses and oilseeds are decreased. Pulses suffered a maximum decline, followed by barley, paddy, total non food crops and total oilseeds during the reference period. The decrease in area under pulses and oilseeds might not be immediately disadvantageous to the fanners because of the present low level output input ratio of these crops, but nevertheless, it has national repercussions. Dr. Sham Singh Bains | Mr. Devinder Kumar Atlas "Land Utilization and Cropping Pattern in Himachal Pradesh" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-2 , February 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd49407.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/economics/other/49407/land-utilization-and-cropping-pattern-in-himachal-pradesh/dr-sham-singh-bains