In fact, vegetable economy in Himachal Pradesh has almost equaled its apple economy, with the former pegged at around Rs 1,500 crore while the latter at Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore. In recent years, the state agriculture department has encouraged farmers to go for production of off-seasonal vegetables by providing them high yielding vegetable seeds after testing them at universities which gives 3-4 times more yield than traditional varieties.
After witnessing bumper apple crop in 2010 with record production of 4,45 crore boxes, Himachal Pradesh last year has witnessed low production of over 1.21 crore boxes, which was 3.24 crore boxes less compared to 2010. With apple production becoming uncertain, people in the state have adopted to vegetable production, which ensures good returns.
Good returns over the years has prompted 5 lakh farmers in the state to adopt vegetable cultivation whose net income has increased from Rs 8,000-10,000 per hectare from food grains to Rs 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh per hectare after switching to off-seasonal vegetable cultivation, said J C Rana, director, agriculture, Himachal Pradesh.
Various schemes like Rs 353 crore Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan Baghban Samridhi Yojana, Rs 321 crore crop diversification scheme launched with the help of Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) have helped in increasing the production of vegetable in the state, said V C Pharka, principal secretary, horticulture. He said 16,500 polyhouses will be constructed covering an area of 15 lakh square meter while 2,000 hectare will be covered under micro-irrigation system to increase vegetable production in the state.
Vegetable production in Himachal Pradesh:
District Total Area Production
Chamba 2500 hectare 45000 tonne
Hamirpur 2890 hectare 4523 tonne
Kangra 7349 hectare 1.47 lakh tonne
Kinnaur 3383 hectare 52200 tonne
Kullu 4900 hectare 85600 tonne
Lahaul-Spiti 4100 hectare 41366 tonne
Mandi 9236 hectare 1.64 lakh tonne
Shimla 11153 hectare 1.92 lakh tonne
Sirmaur 7189 hectare 1.57 lakh tonne
Solan 8545 hectare 2.45 lakh tonne
Una 1473 hectare 27400 tonne