Role of agriculture in socio-economic development: A case study of Mid hills, Sub Humid zone of Himachal Pradesh

For the current study, mid hills, sub-humid agro-climatic zone i.e. Zone II of Himachal Pradesh was selected. 30 blocks of 8 different districts i.e. Kangra, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Mandi, Shimla, Kullu, Solan, and Sirmaur, were considered for the current study. Multistage random sampling technique was used for the selection of the 320 respondents. The data about the socio-economic conditions of rural people and their dependence on agriculture was recorded using the questionnaire method. The study’s objective was to analyze agriculture’s role in improving the rural people’s socio-economic status. For the comparison, farmers were divided into marginal, small, and medium according to the size of their land holdings. It was analyzed that no. of marginal and small farmers were more than medium. The literacy rate of medium farmers was highest i.e., 85.65 percent, and the literacy index of small farmers was found to be highest, i.e., 2.84. The dependency ratio of marginal farmers was highest i.e., 0.27. Total annual farm income was estimated as 1190540.67, and non-farm income was estimated as 463634.20.