Economic appraisal of kinnow production and its marketing in lower hills of Himachal Pradesh

A study was conducted in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh during the year 2013–14 to appraise the socio-economic status of kinnow orchardists and marketing system in the selected area. The samples comprised of 160 kinnow growers selected from Nurpur and Indora blocks of Kangra district using multistage sampling technique. The required information was collected through personal interview method using well-designed and pre-tested schedules. The average size of kinnow crop holdings of small, medium and large orchardists in Nurpur block was worked out to be 1.46, 2.83 and 4.12 respectively whereas in Indora block it was 1.79, 2.79 and 3.95 hectares respectively. The net farm income was found to be the highest in the category of large farms (87.09%) and the lowest in small ones. This indicated that farmers with larger holdings were more inclined towards horticultural crops particularly kinnow. The results revealed that the kinnow production makes significant contribution towards the upliftment of the socio-economic status of the kinnow orchardists in the study area. Out of the three marketing channels, channel III was found to be most efficient with a marketing efficiency of 2.18 followed by channel II with a marketing efficiency of 1.56 while channel I was found to be the least efficient with a marketing efficiency of 0.76.