Introduction

Agriculture and allied sectors in Himachal Pradesh employ 62% of its working population and accounts for 9 % of the State GDP. Out of the total geographical area (5.57 m ha), area under agriculture is around 12 %. It is gifted with a variety of agro-climatic conditions which make it suitable for growing wide range of field and fruit crops. Broadly, It has four zones viz., Low hills subtropical (16% TGA ), Mid hills sub-humid (21% TGA), High hills wet temperate (24% TGA) and High hills dry temperate (39% TGA).

Total area under food grains, fruits, apple, vegetables, floriculture, organic farming and tea is 790, 231, 113, 72, 0.6, 22 and 2.3 thousand ha, respectively. Field crops grown in the State are rice, wheat, maize, groundnut, soybean, sunflower, mustard, toria, urd, beans, moong, rajmash, gram, lentil and cash crops like seed potato, off-season vegetables and ginger, while fruits include apple, mango, orange, pear, plum, peach, lime, litchi, apricot, galgal, pomegranate, etc. Sectors like dairy, poultry, goatry, fisheries, mushroom cultivation, protected farming, apiculture farm machinery, natural Farming, organic Farming, organic tea production, food processing, supply chain management etc. have a greater potential for sustaining hill agriculture at an optimum level. Presently, crop productivity of major crops (yield per unit area) is less almost half of that in the adjoining states. It may be attributed to its difficult terrains, limited irrigation facilities (80 % rainfed area), lower fertilizer use (59 kg/ha) and a large number of small and scattered landholdings (88%). Innovative solutions are always required for enhancing the farmers’ income.

Due to the sincere and arduous work during the past forty one years in the University, the State has achieved new standing in the area of agriculture. The University has developed around 100 farm technologies in the areas of crop improvement, animal breeding, disease combating, natural resources management, etc. and has released 155 improved varieties of different crops. For doubling the farmers’ income by 2022 as envisaged by the government, twenty farm based models have been formulated. Adequate efforts are required to educate and motivate the farmers to adopt the models as per the agro-climatic conditions of their area and their requirements.

Him Palam R-ABI of CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalay is committed to solve the problems of hill farmers of India in general and of Himachal Pradesh in specific through innovative solutions. It will focus on nurturing innovative early-stage enterprises that have high growth potential to become competitive agribusinesses by serving, adding value or linking to farm producers i.e. to improve farmers’ livelihoods through business incubation pertaining to commercialization of technologies, seed ventures (seed production, processing, and marketing), innovative ventures (based on proprietary products or novel services with good market potential), farm ventures (Integrated farming system, Natural/Contract/ precision farming, etc.), agri-biotech ventures, supply chain management ventures, etc.