Economic Efficiency of Input Use in Peach Cultivation in North Western Himalayas

Peach is the most important stone fruit in temperate and sub-tropical areas. Among the stone fruits, peach crop accounts for 49.54 per cent in area and 60.82 per cent production in Himachal Pradesh. A sample of 60 farmers cultivating peach was selected using multistage simple random sampling. Results of the study revealed that literacy rate in the study area were worked out to 82.57 per cent with literacy index of 2.23 indicating low quality of education. Average operational area was found 1.26 ha, out of which orchard area was 0.83 ha and peach plantation accounts for 52.38 per cent. The cultivation of peach component was also seem to be quite important; with its contribution to total household income was 45.54 per cent. It has been observed that fertilizer, FYM and Labour were significantly affecting the production but plant protection chemical was not found significant. It has been observed that Fertilizer, FYM, Plant Protection Chemicals and Labour were found to be significantly under-utilized resources and increase the use of these inputs will increase production. The findings of the study strongly recommend the optimum use of the resources in order to attain desired growth in peach cultivation and ultimately the productivity