Integrated crop management practices for off-season cabbage in high-hill wet-temperate region of north-western Himalayas

Abstract

Off-season vegetable cultivation is a boon to resource poor hill farmers of north-western Himalayas.
Cabbage has emerged as an important off-season vegetable in Himachal Pradesh in general and in
wet-temperate region of Mandi district in particular. With the emergence of urban middle class
market having specific kitchen needs and health consciousness, there is a growing demand for offseason
cabbage in changing food preference domain. However, cabbage yields are very low due to
non-adoption of high yielding cultivars and integrated crop management practices particularly
under rainfed situations, thus, still threatened livelihood security of small and marginal hill farmers.
To scale-up farmers' with improved technology, FLDs' on integrated crop management in off-season
cabbage were conducted by KVK, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh with the objectives of technology
refinement and dissemination. Thus, this paper deals with technology transfer efforts of KVK, Mandi
(HP) on integrated management technology in off-season cabbage and its potential in enhancing
farmers productivity and farm profitability over farmers' practices in wet-temperate region of
Himachal Pradesh.