CHANGES IN LEVELS OF MAIZE PRODUCTIVITY IN HIMACHAL PRADESH:1990-91 TO 2014-15

Abstract

The chief objective of the present study is to reveal spatial patterns of maize productivity and Changes in Himachal Pradesh during 1990-91 to 2014-15. For achieving this purpose, the study is divided into three parts. First part deals with spatial patterns of maize productivity. It is found that the index value of maize productivity varied from minimum of 47.55 percent in Spiti tehsil to 155.90 percent in Churah tehsil in 1990-91. While in 2002-03, it varied from 47.45 percent in Lahaul tehsil to 143.14 percent in Churah tehsil. Whereas in 2014-15, it is lowest of 47.97 percent in Spiti tehsil and highest of 141.51 percent in Churah tehsil. It is also observed that in all time periods, magnitude of maize productivity starts declining from west to east. In second part, it is found that in Himachal Pradesh, the highest index value of maize productivity has declined from 150.90 percent to 141.15 percent during 1990-91 to 2014-15 and registered overall negative change of 8.39 percent index value. Whereas the lowest index value of maize productivity has increased from 47.55 percent in 1990-91 to 47.97 percent in 2014-15 and experience 0.42 percent increase in lowest index value of maize productivity during study period, thus the gap between high and low magnitude of maize productivity has minimized which shows that sign of healthy maize cultivation. In third part, major problems are identified and suggestions are made to solve these problems for increasing the maize productivity in the state. The present study is empirical in nature and based on secondary sources of data. Three time periods are taken and averages are derived for each time period, because 1990-91 is the year of liberalization era and 2002-03 and 2014-15 are post liberalization period. Singh (1976), technique is used for deriving the results and choropleth method is applied for mapping the results.