Heart of the Country

I love that there are tiny farms all over my area on the outskirts of Dharamsala, Kangra district, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, which is in the lap of the Himalayan ranges (30°22’-33°12’ North latitude). Himachal is bounded by Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh to the north, Tibet to the east, Uttar Pradesh to the southeast, Haryana to the south, and Punjab to the southwest and west. The altitude ranges from 460 meters to 6000 meters, with greater Dharamsala at roughly 1000-2000 meters above sea level. Forests occupy 64% of the state; five perennial rivers are fed by snow and rainfall, which varies greatly, from 454mm in Lahaul & Spiti (where the high altitude allows passive solar greenhouses to get 300 days of sunlight per year), to 1565mm in Kangra, where crops grow year around.

Agriculture, in fact, is the mainstay of roughly 75% of the people in Himachal, 84% of whom are marginal (up to one hectare) and small (1-2 hectares) farmers. Himachal’s major food crops are rice, wheat, jowar & bajra (varieties of millet), beans, cauliflower, potatoes, and apples, which are world famous. Plenty of other fruit grows here (papaya being my favorite), there are tea plantations, and mushroom cultivation is expanding.

The 2023-2030 Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development Strategy and Investment Plan reports that horticulture in Himachal has been responsible for many positive outcomes in employment, wages, poverty reduction and allied industries. It focuses on the overall development of horticulture crops in the state, envisions Himachal Pradesh as the ‘Fruit Bowl of India’, and plans to double the state GDP share of the horticulture sector from 3.6% to 7.2% by 2032; by focusing on diversification, sustainability, developing entrepreneurship and doubling farmers’ income in the sector.

Besides the crops, lots of people have chickens, goats and/or a cow or two. Cows, being sacred to Hindus, are allowed to roam free, so nary a day goes by without my seeing a cow tethered in someone’s yard, or roaming around, or sitting in the street. Drivers are very careful not to hit them, as that could result in serious injury—to the driver, at the hands of an angry mob.

Since moving here in 2008, I’ve always had the impression that, if something were to cause a global breakdown of trade; if an electromagnetic pulse were to short-circuit all electronic equipment; even if oil & gas were to become too expensive, or otherwise impossible to obtain; the millions of small and marginal farmers in Himachal would continue producing food, almost as if nothing had changed.