Mostly during the monsoon. The process of agricultural transformation in the study area has led to significant changes in crop diversity during the past two decades, in both the transformed and non-transformed areas. These crops have been completely replaced, mainly with fruit crops. Similarly, local varieties of wheat and maize crops have been substituted by exotic varieties, particularly in the transformed area. In both areas, there has been a complete substitution of local wheat with high-yielding cultivars.
Similar trends are discernible in respect of other crops such as barley, potato, and oilseeds.
The area under fruit crops has nearly doubled in the transformed area and has increased from seven to 21 per cent in the non-transformed area. These changes in the pattern of crops are usually leading to cash crop driven loss of agrobiodiversity. The process of agricultural transformation has also led to the substitution of local breeds of livestock for hybrid breeds. These changes can be explained primarily in terms of changes in crops. The spread of fruit crops, particularly apples, to marginal and fragile lands has led to a reduction in the area under pasture, forcing households to reduce the number of animals.