Recent Trends and Income Generation from Fruit Production in Himachal Pradesh, India: An Analytical Study

Abstract

In this paper the performances of fruit production and the resultant income generation from the same has been analysed in Himachal Pradesh. The study basically aims at analyzing the trends and patterns of fruit production and the income generation from it along with the investigation of annualized growth rates in the said aspects. The study has been conducted on the basis of the secondary sources of data and descriptive cum analytical methodology in terms of tabular and graphic presentations along with the simple growth rate formula has been used in the study. It has been found from the study that, out of the total fruit production in Himachal Pradesh, apple the state fruit of Himachal Pradesh recorded 77.03 percent production recently in 2020-21. The overall growth rate in production of apple in the whole study period of 10 years has been found to be 6.83 percent and the fruit production has been found to contribute to 12.56 percent of the annual state income in Himachal Pradesh followed by the production of different other tropical and sub-tropical fruits in the state. However, negative growth rate has been found in case of the production of apple and other tropical fruits in the recent times and the relevant causes behind such decline is also discussed. Based on the crucial findings in the study, policy suggestions are given to attract government and policy makers’ attention towards the unsatisfactory and underperformances of fruit production in the recent times in Himachal Pradesh.