Diversification towards Vegetable Crops: A Good Option for Doubling the Farmer’s Income

Abstract

The present study was conducted to analyze the reason for which diversification towards vegetable production is taken as a pathway for increasing farmer’s income as well as employment. In this study the trends in area, production and productivity of the vegetables in India and Punjab along with their compound annual growth rate have been calculated. The study was undertaken on a macro framework based on data collected from secondary source like www.indiastat.com. The results indicated that production of vegetables in total as well as the major cultivated vegetables i.e., potato, tomato and peas in Punjab and India had increased over the last 26 years due to increase in area and yield of the respective crops. Due to such notified increment, the vegetables can be taken as a very good option for the diversification from the culturally practiced crops and thereby will definitely promote the increase in income of farmers. But some factors like increasing rate of post harvest losses, poor conditions of contract farming and others have been forming limiting factors for the actual amount of arrival of vegetables to the consumer. Hence in order to continue the increase in availability of these vegetables there is a need to improvise several post harvest practices and motivate the contract farming to spread among vegetable cultivators so that a better platform could be placed for helping the farmers in increasing their income.