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The Indian economy is significantly shaped by the agricultural sector. Compared to secondary and tertiary industries(industrial and service sector), the agricultural industry is hampered by a shortage of cultivated land. The agricultural sector is significantly impacted by land use patterns. Now that agriculture is diversifying, high value crops are being grown rather than low value crops, which changes how much land is being used for farming. Cropping pattern change is a crucial component and popular method of diversification, which has significant effects on agricultural development and reduces rural poverty. The right choice of cropping pattern can help in this position, when the opportunity to cultivate more land is quite limited, to increase income from their small land holdings. It becomes essential to use land efficiently if you want to earn and maintain farm income over a long duration of time. Himachal Pradesh is considered to be the most progressive hill state in India, having made outstanding progress in the socioeconomic development of its citizens. India's Himachal Pradesh region serves as an example for hill farming. The state's agro-climatic characteristics range from subtropical to hot and humid to frigid deserts. For the purpose of sustaining their rural economy, the majority of farmers also engage in traditional field crop-based farming. Restructuring of the cropping pattern and related activities has been promoted by farmers' increased interest in farming as a business. As a result, there are significant differences between various locations and districts in terms of the farming system, cropping pattern, and cropping season. The purpose of this research is to analyze the agricultural patterns and land use in the Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. Shimla is a district and the capital of Himachal Pradesh and its overall area is 5131 sq km. The district is located at latitudes of 30°45ᶦ and 31°44ᶦ north and longitudes of 77°0ᶦ and 78°19ᶦ east. The district has an average elevation of 2206 meters. A subtropical highland climate can be used to describe the region's weather. Winters are often chilly, while summers are warm. The district's economy is based largely on agriculture. The majority of the district's lands are used for agricultural purposes. More over half of its citizens work in agriculture to support their families. Apples, peaches, plums, pears, and other fruit are the district's main agricultural products. A significant portion of the district's annual earnings comes from agricultural products, which significantly boosts the local economy. Farmers in the area are using new agricultural technologies more frequently, which increases the output of many different agriculture products. This district was expressly and purposefully chosen since it is quickly becoming the most significant and prosperous agricultural region in the state. Farmers in the area have expressed a greater interest in adopting cash crop businesses.

Singh (1990) studied the land utilization pattern of the entire agro-climatic zone in Uttar Pradesh in 1988-1989. The author examined that the hilly area has maximum land under forest, permanent pastures, grazing land, tree crops and groves, non-cultivable waste land and area under non-agricultural uses. The area sown more than once and the total cropped area had been found the highest in the eastern region and lowest in the hilly areas.
Kumar V., Sharma S.k., sharma(2002) studied the shift in cropping pattern in the state of Himachal Pradesh during the period of 1972 to 1996. This study revealed that the total cropped area increased from 16.7% to 17.1% of total geographical area. The area under wheat increased from 34.2% to 37.6% and area under maize increased from 28.1% to 32.6%.
Zehra, Verma, Singh M. (2020) analysed that about 28.97% area of Agricultural land has been converted into the Forest and 22.82% into Barren. Around 45.03% of the Built-Up area was converted into Agricultural land and 17.01% was left as Barren with the Forest being 7.13%.Further, a share of 5.55% area underneath Forest was converted into Built-Up and 3.35% into Agricultural land. Nearly 9.53% area of the Barren segment was utilized for Agriculture practices and 4.82% was reclaimed as Built-Up. The 44.77% of the total area occupied by Waterbodies was converted to Barren and 14.94% was used up for Agriculture. The land-use change imitates the significant impact of human actions on its natural resources and the environment.

Source: Census of India

The present paper is based on the secondary data. The data on different land use categories and the various crops of Shimla district were gathered from various published and reliable resources such as Annual Season and crop reports from Shimla's Directorate of Land Records. To fulfil the objectives of the study simple tabular analyses and percentage method are used .


Fig :2

The data indicates in table no. 1 that the total geographical area of Shimla district has increased from 508027 hectareduring 2000-01 to 525327 hectares in 2018-19. Area under forests in Shimla district  increased from 123943 hectare i.e. 24.39 % in 2000-01 to 151564 hectare i.e. 28.85 % of the total geographical area during 2018-19. There was increase in forest area merely 27621 hectares i.e. around 4.46% from the period 2000-01 to 2018-19.During 2000-01 to 2018-19 the percentage area of barren and unculturable land was decreased from 14650 hectare which was 2.88% to 12087 hectare i.e. 2.3% of the total geographical area. A decrease of 0.58% was recorded in barren andunculturable land in this period. Both in 2000-01 and 2018-19 the maximum area of Shimla district for general land use was under permanent pastures which was 252326 hectares i.e. 49.66% and 233995 hectare i.e. 44.54% respectively to the total geographical area of the district. A negative change of 5.12 %  was recorded during this period. The main reason for decrease in permanent pastures was the increase in the area of forests. There was a minor change recorded in net sown area between 2000-01 to 2018-19. In 2000-01 net sown area was 72554 hectares i.e. 14.28% and in 2018-19 it was decreased to 72594hectares i.e. 13.81% of the total geographical area. A decrease of 0.47% was recorded in net sown area during this period. The percentage change in the area of current fallow land and other fallow land was expanded from 1.68% to 2.21% and  reduced from1.02% to 1.01% respectively during the period of 2000-01 to 2018-19. In 2000-01 area under current fallow land and other fallow land was 8540 hectare and 5185 hectares respectively which was increased to 11656 hectare and 5357 hectares in 2018-19 respectively. Under current fellow land an increase in the area was recorded which was 0.53% and  area under other fellow land was reduced by 0.01% during study period . In culturable waste a decline of 0.83% i.e.3855 hectares was recorded during this period from 2000-01 to 2018-19. In 2000-01 it was 14329 hectares whereas in 2018-19 it was decreased to 10474 hectares. The land for non-agricultural uses which was 2.74% in 2000-2001 was increased by 0.87% and in 2018-19 it was 3.61% of the total geographical area. A positive change of 5045 hectare was there during this period of 18 years. The percentage of area under miscellaneous tree crops in 2000-01 was 0.5% i.e. 2571 hectare and in 2018-19it was increased to 8626 hectares and recorded 1.14 %  positive change in the area under the same.

In table no.2, we calculated the percentage of different crops from total cropped area of Shimla district. Area under all fruits (including apples)in Shimla was about 29277 hectares, which occupied 31.13 % of the gross cropped area during 2000-01.  However, among all fruits apple occupied 30.84 % area in 2000-01 which increased to 63.77 % in 2018-19 which is a temperate fruit occupies the dominant position in the district. Notably, this district constitutes the one of the core apples growing district in the Himachal Pradesh. and there has been lot of expansion of apple orchards in Shimla district due to suitable agro-climatic conditions. The overall picture indicates that during 2000- 01 to 2018-19, the district witnessed a positive change of 32.93 % in absolute area under apple in Shimla district. Maize is second major foodgrain crop of the Shimla district, its area was about 16017 hectares in 2000-01  which occupied 17.03% of total cultivated area and in 2018-19 area under maize crop remained 6708 hectares  which  decreased to 7.66 % .During this period 9.37 % negative change was observed. Wheat is one of  the principal foodgrain crop of Shimla district after apple and maize. Wheat was cultivated in 15821 hectares land that covered about 16.82 % of total cultivated area of the district Shimla during 2000-01 which decreased to 7.23 % during 2018-19 and cultivated in 6329 hectares area. A negative change of 9.59 %  was recorded during 2000-01 to  2018-19.In Shimla district area under vegetables during 2000-01 was about 13044 hectares which constituted 13.87 % of gross cultivated area of the district. It is evident from table that the proportion of area under vegetables decreased to 9.64 % during 2018-19. In Shimla district area under vegetables also recoded  a negative change of 4.23% during the study period. Barley is also one of the food grains that is being cultivated in the study area. Although the area under barley was noted 4148 hectares in 2000-01 and 2338 hectares in 2018-19 which is 4.41 % in 2000-01 and decreased to 2.67% in 2018-19 out of total geographical area. A negative change of 1.74 % was seen during 2000-01 to 2018-19. Among cereals the cultivated area under rice was only 2579 hectare which was 2.74 % of total cropped area in 2000-01 and that also decreased to 0.64 % in 2018-19.Likewise other cereals there was also a negative change of 2.10% was recoded under rice crop. However Other cereals were also decreased from 6.83 % to 1.89 %  during study period, the district witnessed a negative change of 4.94 % in the area of other cereals.Oilseeds covered 0.77 %  in 2000-01 Which decreased to 0.35 % in 2018-19.Net sown area occupied 77.15 % of total cropped area during 2000-01 and during 2018-19 it has increased to 81.5 %, ultimately positive change of 4.35 % was recorded  during study period. area sown more than once covered 22.85% area of total area cropped in 2000-01 that decreased to 18.5 % in 2018-19 because of increased area under net area sown.

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