Implications of Diffusion of Orchards in Himachal Pradesh: A Geographical Appraisal

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh, a mountainous State of India is located in the Western Himalayas has the climatic conditions and topography that are conducive to the growth and production of a variety of fruits. Himachal Pradesh hosts a number of orchards that have grown overtime and have had a great impact upon the ecology, society and economy of the State in several ways. Fruit cultivation is probably the only cash cropping system in which concerns for the environment and the economic output go hand in hand to the extent that they are paramount in Himachal Pradesh’s orchard belts today. While on the one hand greater adoption of fruit farming has brought in economic prosperity on the other it has improved the environment. It has brought larger profits to the growers which they have re-invested in improving their social conditions. A detailed discussion of these impacts becomes inescapable in any study into the fruit farming growth and expansion in the State. The present paper is an attempt to study the implications of the diffusion of orchards on the ecology, society and economy of Himachal Pradesh. The findings are based on both primary as well as secondary data.