Department of Agricultural Economics, Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur.
This paper was written when the author was on a short-term fellowship at Noragric (Centre for International Environment and Development Studies), Norway (2003) and is based on his Ph.D. dissertation.
This study has examined the crop diversification in the farm sector of Kangra district and has investigated the empirical relationship between the magnitude of diversification and various socio-economic factors. The study has been conducted on two developed (developed category) and two backward blocks (backward category) using the two-stage stratified random sampling technique. The crop diversification has been found higher in more-diversified farms. In the overall farm analysis, diversification of crop is higher under developed agriculture. The regression results for the determinants of crop diversification have indicated that both economic factors such as farm-size, tractor and bullock density, extent of tenancy, farm income and non-farm income and social factors like family size, age and education of the head of the family, distance from town/metalled road are significant in crop diversification in the developed category. It implies that a proper mix of both economic and non-economic factors is essential for explaining the variation in diversification indices. The economic variables like number of fragments of holding, extent of tenancy, net-farm income and off-farm income are more important for explaining the variations in Herfindhal and Entropy indices in the backward category.
