Author(s):

Dr. Krishan Kumar, Dr. Naveen Dutt, Dr. Kapil Kathuria, Dr. Rashmi Chaudhary, Dr. Yasmin Janjhua, Dr. Piyush Mehta, and M Bahir

Abstract: Agriculture is the pre-dominant occupation of the inhabitants of tribal Lahaul valley in Himachal Pradesh. It has peculiar land use with traditional coarse grain based cropping patterns to commercial cultivation of pea, potato and vegetable crops. This area has shown its promise through spectacular economic growth over the year which was mainly due to the advent and adoption of commercial farming by its entre preneuring inhabitants. The present study therefore was made to examine the land use, input-output relationships and resource use efficiency for different farm categories as it is likely to help policy planners in formulating restructuring plans for equitable growth. A two-state stratified random sampling design was adopted to select the sample. In all 70 small, 50 medium and 30 large farms were selected. The input –output relationship was studied through log linear production function estimated directly using the input-output data from individual farms. Increasing returns to scale were observed on small farms but decreasing returns were observed on medium and large farms. For the farm as a whole the ratios suggested that priority should be extended towards human labour as compared to all other variables.

Pages: 1032-1036  |  807 Views  137 Downloads

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