The Economy of Small and Marginal Farmers of District Sirmour H.P. (A Bench Mark Survey), 1975 by R. Swarup and R.N. Tewari
Abstract: As in known commonly Bench Mark Surveys (BMS) are, by and large, an economic fact finding enquiry in which data on selected aspects of the economic life of the phenomenon is generated. The usefulness of such a study resides in the fact that it seems as a Bench to assess the pace and pattern of changes introduced in the universe over a period of time i.e. the changes introduced in peasant farming during the project’s life to be measured after the completion of programme. The H.P. Govt. started work for the development of small farmers in district Sirmour under Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) in 1971 before the Bench Mark Survey (BMS) was conducted in this district. A multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to obtain the final sample of 356 households. The study shows that besides the size of the holdings, location of the villages at different elevations has its own impact. Possibilities are that people placed in more difficult farming situations exerted more and could take up enterprise combinations that the valley areas neglected.
