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A poverty eradication and employment creation have been central objectives of planners and policymakers in developing countries like India. As a backdrop, a significant number of schemes were created to generate employment and foster long-term economic growth. This article examines the influence of employment initiatives on employment generation and economic upliftment in rural area of Kashmir. Both primary and secondary data sources are employed in this study. The data was analyzed by using a log-linear regression model and correlation analysis. Knowledge Index was used to determine respondents’ awareness of employment programs. The findings indicate a linkage between the amount of money spent and the creation of employment opportunities. The findings also demonstrate that changes in people’s income have the major impact on family expenditure, hospital and medical costs, children’s education, and household savings. Finally, the study concluded that increasing employment days and rural credit will result in more revenue in people’s hands and improved economic empowerment.

Financial investments in apple cultivation in Kashmir valley are increasingly recognized as key drivers of economic growth and employment creation. This paper presents a comprehensive economic analysis across physiographic divisions using precise economic indices that include cost-benefit analysis, project evaluation method and other socio-economic determinants. It relies on a primary survey of 866 farm-households selected across four physiographic divisions of the Kashmir valley viz- valley floor, karewas, foothills and side valleys. Results reveal that the karewas fetch the highest returns from an investment owing to its ideal geographical conditions. On contrary, the non-karewas belt was found to be trailing in one or more economic indices although the financial feasibility of investment in apple cultivation was still found satisfactory. The study affirms that agricultural land-use decisions at the micro-scale should be determined by the site-specific attributes and that economic indices are largely dictated by physical characteristics of land itself. While demonstrating the utility of land-use decisions in light of geographical factors, our results can assist both farmers and policy-makers to design a more adapted land use strategy for fostering financial investments in apple cultivation in the valley.

Jammu and Kashmir is the largest producer of walnuts in India and it acts as an important source of livelihood for a large section of farmers. The present study aims to measure the profitability and economic efficiency of walnut orchards and subsequently explore constraints hindering walnut cultivation in the Valley of Kashmir, India. It relies on cross-sectional database collected from 240 walnut growers in the study area during the 2018-19 production period. Results reveal that walnut cultivation is highly labour-intensive as it incurs 80% of total production costs. The cost-benefit ratio of 1:5.35/ha indicates better economic prospects for the walnut industry in Kashmir Valley. The regression coefficients of production analysis and marginal value product and marginal factor cost (MVP/MFC) ratio indicate that there is ample scope for the expansion of walnut cultivation in the research area. However, walnut growers are confronted by several problems that more or less tend to be location specific. The study calls for policy intervention concerning better extension services, greater access to credit and farmer training programs to boost walnut production in the study region.

Farming is the most dominant land-use in the Kashmir valley, India. However, the region is characterised by low productivity of agricultural crops that includes rice. To this end, the present study aims to measure economic efficiency of farm land inputs using Cobb-Douglas production model and MVP/MFC ratio. The results reveal that rice production operates at diminishing returns to scale as summation of estimated coefficients of signifcant variables was found to be less than unity (0.76). Coming to the MVP/MFC ratio, the labour was found to be operating beyond price efficiency frontier, indicating allocative inefficiency of the said resource. The study calls for immediate reallocation of resources so that optimum use of inputs is ensured not only to sustain rice production but also enhance proft maximization of indigent rice farmers in the study area.

Climate change and variability has far reaching impacts on agriculture particularly in ecologically sensitive areas like the Himalayas. The present study attempts to understand the farmer’s perception and adaptation strategies to changing climate in Lidder watershed of Kashmir Himalayas, India. Based on a cross-sectional database of 266 farm operating families, the study adopts a bottom-up approach to investigate farmer’s perceptions of changes in climatic variables as well as various farm-level adaptation measures, determinants and barriers at the farm-household level. The results show that the majority of farmers have developed a perception of climate change and have engaged themselves in adaptive behaviour with regard to agricultural land use and planning. A weighted average index used to measure the most relevant adaptation strategies revealed that conversion of agricultural land to horticulture, improving irrigational facilities and water harvesting were the main adaptation methods implemented by farmers in the study area. Utilizing the logit regression model, the study confirmed that household characteristics such as land holding size, age of the farmer, years of schooling, farm experience and labour force highly influence household decisions to adapt to climate change. The study calls for policy intervention at the farm-household level to enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers in the region.

The assessment of water quality of the Dagwan stream encompassing spatiotemporal variations in physicochemical parameters and all important and relevant hydrological attributes was carried out at five different sites for a period of 1 year (June 2014–May 2015). Statistical techniques like analysis of variance (ANOVA), cluster analysis, and regression analysis applied to datasets revealed spatiotemporal variations. ANOVA and Tukey’s box plot was applied and resulting F values showed the significance of observed variation of each parameter at 5% level of significance in which some parameters do not change significantly. The higher positive and negative relationship among various analyzed water quality parameters were described by general linear regression model (P < 0.0001). The study of physicochemical parameters signify that the quality of its water substantially declines while moving downstream. The water quality sites were classified into significant clusters (clusters I and II) by cluster analysis. Cluster I (sites I and II) is illustrated by similar and better water quality whereas cluster II (sites II, IV, and V) is considered to be of moderately reduced water quality, thereby reflecting the different physicochemical characteristics and quality class. The results from water quality index (WQI) validate that water of the Dagwan stream falls within the excellent to very good category of water quality class. While comparing the results with WHO standards, the water quality was in permissible limits. The escalating level of pollution from upstream to downstream sites indicated slight anthropogenic stress in the downstream areas of the Dagwan stream.