Department of Social Sciences Neri,Hamirpur (HP)

Dr Shilpa
Assistant Professor & Incharge

The Department offers teaching courses to the undergraduate (B.Sc. Honours in Forestry, Horticulture & Biotechnology) and postgraduate (M.Sc. Agriculture Economics) programmes of the university. The Master’s programme was started by the department in the year 2019 and the PhD programme was started in the year 2023.

General research agendas of the department are directed towards agricultural development scenario in the state and the country. The department is engaged in research issues which include economic analysis of fruits, vegetables, flowers of different regions of Himachal Pradesh, impact assessment of various social development programmes of the government and economic evaluation of natural resources. More recently, the research issues related to environmental and natural resource economics including implications of climate change for the farm livelihoods as well as the economics of organic and natural farming as well as doubling farmers income have also been included in the research agenda of the department.

Department scientists have published research papers and book chapters in leading national and international journals. Department in its journey of over six years was able to cultivate useful human resources for the country.

Mandate

Train manpower with specialization in the field of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics through resident instructions at undergraduate and postgraduate degree level.
Conduct research in the area of Agricultural Production, Marketing, Finance and Natural Resources Economics and Policy.
To impart Trainings to the Growers and Extension personnel of Line department of Agriculture, horticulture and other such departments.

Academics

The Department offers degree programme

M.Sc. (Agriculture) Agricultural Economics
Ph.D. Agricultural Economics
M.Sc. (Agriculture) Agricultural Extension Education

Click here for course details

Academic Achievements

Ms. Kumari Sandeep have qualified ASRB NET examination during 2023-24.

Research

Thrust Areas

Production Economics
Agricultural Marketing
Impact assessment of various government schemes
Economic evaluation of natural resourses

On-going Projects

Impact of Risk Management strategies on Livelihood of Hill farmers: A case of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in Kangra, Hamirpur, Bilaspur,Una and Mandi (Funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi)
Challenges of fodder availability amongst migratory herders in agro pastoral system of Himachal Pradesh. Funded by “The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics” (SANDEE)-“International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development” (ICIMOD), Nepal.

Achievements

The demand for PMFBY was calculated for those who are not availing the scheme and results revealed that the demand for this scheme is quite high as the mean willingness to pay of the farmers were Rs. 610, Rs. 638, and Rs. 526, respectively which is more than actual premium rates for maize, paddy and wheat provided the project guidelines should be farmer friendly.
The important recommendation from the project on PMFBY in Himachal Pradesh was the inclusion of the losses and damages caused by the wild animals in the main cover instead of add on insurance as the damages caused by stray cows and monkeys are very common in hilly state like Himachal Pradesh.
A study was performed on vegetable cultivation under polyhouse in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh revealed that vegetables cultivated under protected condition were highly remunerative to the farmers as compared to the vegetables grown under open field condition. Besides subsidized polyhouses were found economically feasible as compared to non-subsidized polyhouse cultivation.
A study on mushroom cultivation and Marketing in Low-Hills of the state revealed that mushroom cultivation was comparatively profitable than traditional crops to the farmers of this region.
Formulated questionnaire for Impact analysis of the technologies developed by the college and the same adopted by the farmers in the past five years.
Agriculture performance of the Himachal Pradesh during last fifty years was worked out and the study revealed that compound annual growth rates of Net State Domestic Product in agriculture showed increasing trend over the years in the state. The coefficient of variation of Net State Domestic Product revealed that Himachal Pradesh recorded comparatively less variation compared to the country as a whole. The compound annual growth rates of different sub-sectors of agriculture in the state revealed that the performance of different crop sectors of agriculture in Himachal Pradesh was below the all India average with exception of fruits & vegetables and condiments & spices.

Extension

Department is extensively engaged in providing extension services in the form of lectures for HDOs, HEOs and school students on various issues. Besides, department is engaged in organizing workshops and trainings to farmers and research scholars under various externally funded projects.

Achievements

Department have conducted 32 no’s of exposure visit of 1301 students various schools of district Hamripur in the college of Horticulture &Forestry, Neri till date.
Department has organized one day dissemination workshop under the project “Impact of Risk Management Strategies on Livelihood of Hill Farmers: A Case of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) in Kangra, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Una and Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh” funded by ICSSR, New Delhi.
Department scientists have written more than 30 extension articles/Popular article till date on various issues.
Department scientists have delivered lectures (More the 40 nos.) to farmers, HDOs and HEOs on multifarious aspects.

Awards/Recognitions

Dr Shilpa was awarded Gold Medal for highest score in masters in 2013.
Dr Shilpa was awarded Uma Dutt Mamgain Best Research Award in Masters in 2013 under the guidance of Dr Ravinder Sharma by SADHNA society.
Dr Shilpa was awarded Gold Medal and certificate of honour for standing first in masters in 2013-14 in Dr YS Parmar UHF Nauni by Himotkarsh Sahitya Sanskriti avam Jankalyan Parishad Una (HP).
Dr Shilpa got DST INSPIRE Fellowship during Ph.D.
Dr Shilpa received best poster award for the poster entitled “Organic farming: An Economically Sustainable Approach in Agriculture” during first zonal convention of Agrivision 2022 on Natural farming: a national priority for health and ecological restoration on 05-06 April, 2022 as a co-author.
Dr Chaman Lal got Indian Council of Agriculture Research Fellowship in M.Sc. (JRF) and Senior Research Fellowship of ICAR in Ph.D.