Crop diversification among farming households in rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
2012
Shafi, M.M. (Agricultural Univ., Peshawar (Pakistan). Inst. of Development Studies) | Shah, M.K. (Agricultural Univ., Peshawar (Pakistan). Inst. of Development Studies)
The present study was carried out in rural community of Peshawar valley, Pakistan in 2011. The major objective was to examine the crop diversification among the farming community in the study area. There are 5 districts in Peshawar valley namely; Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshehra, Charsadda and Swabi. A 20 percent sample size i.e. 298 sample respondents from 5 villages were randomly selected and data was collected through interview schedule. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and OLS technique were used. The results show diversification in crops of the sampled rural households. Dependence on agriculture was found high due to conducive environment for farming. The favorable climate, strong irrigation system, public and private agricultural education and extension, and marketing facilities along with recent improvement in technology enabled farmers to move from mono cropping to multiple cropping. Only a few farmers were growing mono crop while most were growing 3 to 7 crops. Majority farm household were growing cash and off-season along with cereal crops. It was realized that the recent trend towards multiple cropping was started due to increased farmer's preferences for cash and off-season crops. Finally, the study recommends that in order to increase income from agriculture, it should be further diversified towards value added and commercial farming. The study further recommends that rural infrastructure, education and rural development policies should be introduced to improve farm income.
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