Rural Transformation by Agriculture Diversification and Innovation Adoption: A study from Rudraprayag district, Garhwal Himalaya, India

Rural communities in Garhwal Himalayan region face a range of socio-economic and environmental problems. The area of the present study is district Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand. This hill district has subsistence farming as their main economic activity. Due to subsistence livelihood, migration and a remittance based economy operate in the district. The potential of innovation/technology has not yet been adequately and appropriately harnessed to overcome the development constraints posed by the fragile Himalayan environment. As government made many efforts to boost the process of innovation adoption, the technologies currently restricted with only few progressive farmers. Thus, there is a need for agriculture diversification and large-scale extension of region specific technologies for enhancing the economic condition of rural poor/smallholder household. This study focuses on the issue of agriculture diversification, potential areas of diversification and need of diversification with the need of technological adoption.