Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Vegetable Production in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh

The present study was based on primary data collected from a representative sample of 60 vegetable growers in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh in order to examine the relationship of some socio-economic variables with productivity of selected vegetables. The study revealed that the female headed families were obtaining 10 to 18% higher productivities than male headed in case of cucumber, cauliflower, cabbage and pea. Families having size of more than 4 persons were obtaining higher yields in case of cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, Iceberg and cucumber. Further, higher yields in most of the vegetable crops were obtained by those households whose heads were in the age group of greater than 30 years. The educational-level of the head of the sample households was found to have a direct relationship with the productivity of all the vegetable crops. The marginal and small farmers were getting higher yield in vegetables than the farmers having more than 2 hectares of land. Regression analysis revealed that 1% increase in the area under crop would increase gross income of the farmers by 1.21% in case of pea crop. The study emphasized that the rural unemployed youth with education upto graduation should be encouraged to engage themselves in vegetable production as a profession.