Executive Summary 1.1 Introduction Taking the notice of slow growth in agriculture and allied sectors, National Development Council (NDC) reaffirmed its commitment to rejuvenate agriculture by achieving 4 per cent annual growth rate during the Eleventh five year plan. The council made agriculture growth as an essential element of its strategy to make growth more inclusive and passed a resolution to actualize the envisaged growth rate. Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, in compliance with NDC resolution and in consultation with the Planning Commission, formulated guidelines for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). As per these guidelines, each district is required to formulate a Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan (C-DAP) by including the resources from both the centrally sponsored and state sponsored existing schemes. The Comprehensive District Agricultural Plan (C-DAP) aims at moving towards projecting the requirements for development of agriculture and allied sectors in the district. Therefore, C-DAP is not only the usual aggregation of the existing schemes but it would present the vision for development of agriculture and allied sectors within the overall perspective of the district. The C-DAP would present the financial requirements and sources of finance for agriculture development in a comprehensive way. It would also include animal husbandry, fishery, dairy, minor irrigation, agriculture marketing, forestry, water harvesting and conservation of natural resources, keeping in view the technological possibilities in the district. The C-DAP of district Una has been prepared as per the guidelines of RKVY. This plan document analyses the current situation of agriculture and allied sectors in the district Una and also describes the needs and potentials along with statement of objectives and analysis of ongoing as well as new schemes and programmes. The District Plan discusses what the district will try to achieve over a medium term of five years and how it intends to achieve it. The C-DAP also contains an action plan along with tentative financial outlay with a provision of continuous updating. Objectives The aim of C-DAP is to design an integrated and participatory action plan for the development of agriculture and allied sectors within the purview of overall development of local areas. The basic grassroots level data have been collected to fulfill the aim of the district plan. The objectives of district plan are; 1 to prepare a C-DAP under participatory approach involving various departments, organizations and stakeholders; to assess and plan for the infrastructure required for the development of agriculture; to identify the enabling factors for optimal utilization of scarce natural, physical and financial resources; to strengthen linkages with required institutional support services like credit, technology transfer, research and extension; and to evolve an action plan for achieving sustainable agricultural growth with food security, growth oriented cropping system and development of allied sectors that will improve income of the farmers. District Profile Una has been one of the smaller districts of Himachal Pradesh, which is located in the western part of the state along its boundary with Punjab. Prior to reorganization of Punjab in 1966, Una district was part of Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. At present it is bounded by district Kangra in the north, districts of Hamirpur and Bilaspur in the east, district Roopnagar of Punjab in the southeast, and districts of Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr of Punjab in the west. The latitudinal and longitudinal extent of the district is from 31-17- 52 to 31-52- 0 north and 75-58- 02 to 76-28-25 east respectively. The total geographical area of the district is 1540 sq. km which is about 2.8 % of the total area of the state. About two thirds of the district has an elevation between 300-600 metres and the remaining about one third between 600-900 metres from the sea level. A few ridge tops and peaks also have elevation more than 900 metres. River Soan and the northwestern part of Govind Sagar (from Bhakra Dam to the northwestern end of the reservoir) are the most prominent water features of the district. The district has been divided into four tehsils (Una, Amb, Haroli and Bangana) and one sub-tehsil (Bharwain). Under community development programme, the district has been divided into five community development blocks namely Una, Amb, Gagret, Bangana and Haroli. The total number of inhabited villages in the district is 758 and the district has 5 towns. More than 90 per cent of district’s population lives in villages and mainly depends on agriculture as a main occupation. As per Census 2001, the district has a population of 4,48,273 persons, having 997 females against 1000 males, the density of population is 291 persons per sq km, the percentage of SCs in total population is 22.4 and the STs population is negligible in the district. Out of total population, 4, 08,849 (90 per cent) persons are living in 758 villages and the remainig population of 39424 persons is living in 5 urban towns. More than 64 per cent (488) of villages in the district have population less than 500 and only 4.1 per cent (31) villages have population more than 2000. The literacy rate, including 0-6 years of population, in the district is 69.7 per cent (male 69.4 per cent 2 and female 64.3 per cent).The literacy rate in the rural areas is 69.4 per cent (male 75 %, female 63.9 %). Almost 92 per cent of population of the district belongs to Hindu, 5.2 per cent Sikhs, and 2.6 per cent to Muslim religions. The district has a good network of education and health institutions. There were 505 primary, 118 middles, and 128 senior secondary and 7 colleges in 2006-07, in which respective number of students were 34540, 7528, 44328, and 6085 respectively. All villages in the district are electrified. On manufacturing side, the district had 96 registered factories with 849 workers during 2007-08. So far the financial institutions are concerned, the district has 53 branches of commercial banks, 22 of co-operative banks, 4 of agriculture development banks and 3 of rural regional banks with total deposits of Rs 1191 crore, Rs 490.09 crore, nil and Rs 17.58 crores respectively. The total advances were Rs 337.48 crores, Rs 116.72 crores, Rs 12.08 crores and Rs 6.96 crore respectively in 2007-08. The corresponding Credit Deposit (CD) ratios were 31.7 per cent, 23.8 per cent, nil and 39.6 per cent respectively. There are 219 Primary Agricultural Co-operative Societies (PACSs), with 181491 membership, Rs 1205.9 lacs as share capital, and Rs 27776.11 lacs as working capital, during 2006-07. The roads network in the district shows that it has almost 1700 kms road length both double and single. As far about records of employment office, there are almost 57621 unemployeds in the district, out of them 88 per cent have education upto the matric and above. The health facilities are provided through 1 regional hospital, 1 civil hospital, 15 community health centres, 19 primary health centres, 134 sub centres, 1 ESI dispensary, 2 ayurvedic hospitals, 69 ISM ayurvedic centres and 1 naturopathy clinic. Agriculturaly, the total net sown area in the district is around 37 thousand hec. which is about 24 per cent of the total geographical area of the district. Wheat and maize are the main crops of the district during rabi and kharif which account for 45.8 % and 42.9 % of the total cropped area respectively. The cropping intensity in the district is 193 %. The district has a good scope for the promotion of horticulture. The area under different fruit crops was 5256 hectares in 2006-07 and the total production was 5750 MTs. The gross irrigated area in the district is 13588 hectares, which is about 37 % per cent of the total cropped area (71,469 hects) of the district. The forests cover is only 12 per cent of the total area. As per livestock census 2003, the district has 204542 animals and 96764 poultry birds. There are 18 veterinary hospitals and 110 veterinary dispensaries to provide better veterinary facilities to the animals. The district produced 1,03,563 litre milk, 54,74,463 eggs and 604 MTs fish during 2006-07. The total registered tractors in Una were 127 in 2006-07, but the actual numbers of tractor in the district are much larger (1665 in 2008). The entire district of Una falls in Shivalik Hills region. The district may be divided into two physiographical parts: (i) Irrigated Plain Valley Tract; and (ii) Rainfed Hilly Tract. 3 For adopting appropriate strategies to accelerate the process of agricultural development, the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), Una district has been divided into following four Agro-Ecological Situations (AESs) on the basis of soil type, topography and irrigation patterns: AES-I (Swan Bella) includes the plain areas of the district AES-II (Swan- Har) spreads throughout the all five blocks of the district AES-III (Beet Area) mainly spreads over Haroli block AES-IV (Mid Hills) spreads over the parts of Bangana, Amb and Gagret and Una blocks 1.2 Main points of the SWOT Strengths The soils of the district are suitable for growing food crops, cash crops, vegetables and fruit plants. Except for some period during winter temperature in the district are conducive for seed germination and plant growth. The district receives a fairly good quantum of precipitation i.e. between 1000-1400 mm per annum. The cropping intensity of 193 per cent is better than the state average of 176.