Economic Affairs, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 451-457, June 2019 DOI: 10.30954/0424-2513.2.2019.22 ©2019 New Delhi Publishers. All rights reserved Socio-Economic Characteristics and Problems Faced by Apple Cultivators Under with Drip and without Drip Irrigation System Sreelekha Kudamala * , Subhash Sharma and Amit Guleria Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Agriculture, Department of Social Sciences, Nauni-173230, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India *Corresponding author: sreelekhahorti@gmail.com ABSTRACT Apple is the main fruit crop of Himachal Pradesh and is grown in nine out of the twelve districts. It contributes to 40 per cent of the fruit growing areas in Himachal Pradesh. A sample of 60 farmers cultivating apple was selected using multistage simple random sampling. Out of 60 farmers 30 farmers are with drip irrigation and 30 farmers are without drip irrigation. Literacy situation revealed that 93.37 per cent family members were literates with a literacy index of 3.37 in case of with drip irrigation farms. In case of without drip irrigation farms, 91.61 per cent family members were found literates with a literacy index of 3.05. Average size of land holding was 1.34 and 1.38 ha on with drip and without drip irrigation farms, respectively which is low due to more area under apple. Area under apple has been found to be 64.35 per cent out of total cultivated land on with drip irrigation farms and in case of without drip irrigation farms it was 67.09 per cent out of total cultivated land. The main problems of farmers with drip irrigation were clogging of emiters (83.33%), difculty in inter cropping and high cost of spare parts (66.67%) each and irregular electric supply and spare parts not available at village (63.33%) each. The main problems of farmers without drip irrigation were high cost of establishment (86.67%), lack of knowledge on subsidy (73.33%) and lack of technical knowledge (70.00%). Highlights m The main problems of farmers with drip irrigation were clogging of emiters, difculty in inter cropping and high cost of spare parts. Keywords: Apple, drip irrigation, socio-economic characteristics, problems India is currently producing about 238 million tonnes of horticulture produce and horticulture production has surpassed the food production in the country. It has proven beyond doubt that productivity of horticulture crops is much higher compared to productivity of food grains. Horticulture sector has emerged as a driving force for agricultural development in India. The sector is most proftable venture for all farming activities, as it provides ample employment opportunities and scope to raise income of the farming community in the country. Realizing these potentials, the government of India started puting greater thrust for the development of horticultural sector afer sixties in order to exploit the country’s vast potential and to generate the much needed value addition. Apple has been found to be growing over an area of 2,77,300 hectares with a production of 22,41,700 MT and productivity of 8.1 MT/ha in the year 2016-2017 in India (Anonymous, 2017). Apple is the main fruit crop of Himachal Pradesh and is grown in nine out of the twelve districts. It contributes to 40 per cent of the fruit growing areas in Himachal Pradesh. The apple accounted for 1,11,896 hectares with a production of 4,68,134 MT and a productivity of 4.18 MT/ha in the year 2016-17 in Himachal Pradesh (Anonymous 2017). Kinnaur and Shimla are the main apple producing