The Story of Village Palampur PDF

1 Chapter The Story of Village Palampur Overview The purpose of the story is to introduce some basic concepts relating to production and this we do through a story of a hypothetical village called Palampur.* Farming is the main activity...

1 Chapter The Story of Village Palampur Overview The purpose of the story is to introduce some basic concepts relating to production and this we do through a story of a hypothetical village called Palampur.* Farming is the main activity in Palampur, whereas several other activities such as small scale manufacturing, dairy, transport, etc. are carried out on a limited scale. These production activities need various types of resources — natural resources, man- made items, human effort, money, etc. As we read through the story of Palampur, we will learn how various resources Picture 1.1 Scene of a village combine to produce the desired goods and electric connections. Electricity powers all services in the village. the tubewells in the fields and is used in Introduction various types of small business. Palampur Palampur is well-connected with has two primary schools and one high neighbouring villages and towns. Raiganj, school. There is a primary health centre a big village, is 3 kms from Palampur. An run by the government and one private all weather road connects the village to dispensary where the sick are treated. Raiganj and further on to the nearest The description above shows that small town of Shahpur. Many kinds of Palampur has fairly well-developed transport are visible on this road starting system of roads, transport, electricity, from bullock carts, tongas, bogeys (wooden irrigation, schools and health centre. cart drawn by buffalos) loaded with jaggery Compare these facilities with those in (gur) and other commodities to motor your nearby village. vehicles like motorcycles, jeeps, tractors The story of Palampur, an imaginary and trucks. village, will take us through the different This village has about 450 families types of production activities in the belonging to several different castes. The village. In villages across India, farming 80 upper caste families own the majority is the main production activity. The other of land in the village. Their houses, some production activities, referred to as non- of them quite large, are made of brick with farm activities include small cement plastering. The SCs (dalits) manufacturing, transport, shop-keeping, comprise one third of the population and etc. We shall take a look at both these live in one corner of the village and in types of activities, after learning a few much smaller houses some of which are general things about production. of mud and straw. Most of the houses have * The narrative is partly based on a research study by Gilbert Etienne of a village in Bulandshahr district in Western Uttar Pradesh. The Story of Village Palampur 1 2024-25 Organisation of Production capital. We shall learn more about human capital in the next chapter. The aim of production is to produce the In the picture, identify the land, labour goods and services that we want. There and fixed capital used in production. are four requirements for production of goods and services. The first requirement is land, and other natural resources such as water, forests, minerals. The second requirement is labour, i.e. people who will do the work. Some production activities require highly educated workers to perform the necessary tasks. Other activities require workers who can do manual work. Each worker is providing the labour necessary for production. The third requirement is physical capital, i.e. the variety of inputs required at every stage during production. What are the items that come under physical Picture 1.2 A factory, with several labourers capital? and machines (a) Tools, machines, buildings: Tools and Every production is organised by machines range from very simple tools combining land, labour, physical capital such as a farmer’s plough to and human capital, which are known as sophisticated machines such as factors of production. As we read generators, turbines, computers, etc. through the story of Palampur, we will Tools, machines, buildings can be used learn more about the first three factors in production over many years, and of production. For convenience, we will are called fixed capital. refer to the physical capital as the capital (b) Raw materials and money in hand: in this chapter. Production requires a variety of raw materials such as the yarn used by Farming in Palampur the weaver and the clay used by the potter. A lso, some money is always 1. Land is fixed required during production to make Farming is the main production activity payments and buy other necessary in Palampur. 75 per cent of the people items. Raw materials and money in who are working are dependent on hand are called working capital. farming for their livelihood. They could Unlike tools, machines and buildings, be farmers or farm labourers. The well- these are used up in production. being of these people is closely related to There is a fourth requirement too. You production on the farms. will need knowledge and enterprise to be But remember that there is a basic able to put together land, labour and constraint in raising farm production. physical capital and produce an output Land area under cultivation is practically either to use yourself or to sell in the fixed. Since 1960 in Palampur, there has market. This these days is called human been no expansion in land area under 2 Economics 2024-25 cultivation. By then, some of the larger areas of land more effectively. The wastelands in the village had been first few tubewells were installed by the converted to cultivable land. There exists government. So on, however, farmers no further scope to increase farm started setting up private tubewells. As a production by bringing new land under result, by mid-1970s the entire cultivated cultivation. area of 200 hectares (ha.) was irrigated. The standard unit of measuring land Not all villages in India have such is hectare, though in the villages you high levels of irrigation. Apart from may find land area being discussed the riverine plains, coastal regions in in local units such as bigha, guintha our country are well-irrigated. In etc. One hectare equals the area of a contrast, plateau regions such as the square with one side measuring 100 Deccan plateau have low levels of metres. Can you compare the area of irrigation. Of the total cultivated area a 1 hectare field with the area of your in the country a little less than 40 school ground? per cent is irrigated even today. In the remaining areas, farming is largely dependent on rainfall. 2. Is there a way one can grow more from the same land? To grow more than one crop on a piece of In the kind of crops grown and facilities land during the year is known as multiple available, Palampur would resemble a cropping. It is the most common way of village of the western part of the state of increasing production on a given piece of Uttar Pradesh. All land is cultivated in land. All farmers in Palampur grow Palampur. No land is left idle. During the atleast two main crops; many are growing rainy season (kharif) farmers grow jowar potato as the third crop in the past fifteen and bajra. These plants are used as cattle feed. It is followed by cultivation of potato to twenty years. between October and December. In the winter season (rabi), fields are sown with wheat. From the wheat produced, farmers keep enough wheat for the family’s consumption and sell the surplus wheat at the market at Raiganj. A part of the land area is also devoted to sugarcane which is harvested once every year. Sugarcane, in its raw form, or as jaggery, is sold to traders in Shahpur. The main reason why farmers are able Picture 1.3 Different crops to grow three different crops in a year in Palampur is due to the well-developed system of irrigation. Electricity came early Let’s Discuss to Palampur. Its major impact was to The following Table1.1 shows the land transform the system of irrigation. Persian wheels were, till then, used by under cultivation in India in units of farmers to draw water from the wells and million hectares. Plot this on the graph irrigate small fields. People saw that the provided. What does the graph show? electric-run tubewells could irrigate much Discuss in class. The Story of Village Palampur 3 2024-25  Table 1.1: Cultivated area over the years for higher yield. Yield is measured as Year Cultivated Area crop produced on a given piece of land (in Million ctares ) during a single season. Till the mid- 1950–51 132 1960s, the seeds used in cultivation 1990–91 186 were traditional ones with relatively low yields. T raditional seeds needed less 2000–01 186 irrigation. Farmers used cow-dung and 2010–11 (P) 198 other natural manure as fertilizers. All 2011–12 (P) 196 these were readily available with the 2012–13 (P) 194 farmers who did not have to buy them. 2013–14 (P) 201 The Green Revolution in the late 1960s 2014–15 (P) 198 introduced the Indian farmer to cultivation of wheat and rice using high 2015–16 (P) 197 yielding varieties (HYVs) of seeds. 2016–17 (P) 200 Compared to the traditional seeds, the HYV seeds promised to produce much (P) - Provisional Data greater amounts of grain on a single plant. Source: Pocket Book of Agriculture Statistics As a result, the same piece of land would 2020, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, now produce far larger quantities of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and foodgrains than was possible earlier. HYV Farmers Welfare. seeds, however, needed plenty of water Cultivated area (in million hectares) and also chemical fertilizers and 250 pesticides to produce best results. 200 Cultivated area 150 100 50 0 1950-51 1990-01 2000-01 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Year Is it important to increase the area under irrigation? Why? You have read about the crops grown in Palampur. Fill the following table based on information on the crops grown in your region. You have seen that one way of increasing production from the same land is by multiple cropping. The other Picture 1.4 Modern Farming Methods: HYV way is to use modern farming methods seeds, chemical fertilizer etc. Name of crop Month sown Month Harvested Source of irrigation (Rain, tanks, tubewells, canals, etc.) 4 Economics 2024-25 Higher yields were possible only from a Modern farming methods require the combination of HYV seeds, irrigation, farmer to start with more cash than chemical fertilisers, pesticides, etc. before. Why? Farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh were the first to Suggested Activity try out the modern farming method in India. The farmers in these regions set During your field visit talk to some up tubewells for irrigation, and made use farmers of your region. Find out: of HYV seeds, chemical fertilisers and 1. What kind of farming methods — pesticides in farming. Some of them modern or traditional or mixed — do bought farm machinery, like tractors and the farmers use? Write a note. threshers, which made ploughing and harvesting faster. They were rewarded 2. What are the sources of irrigation? with high yields of wheat. 3. How much of the cultivated land is In Palampur, the yield of wheat grown irrigated? (very little/nearly half/ from the traditional varieties was 1300 kg majority/all) per hectare. With HYV seeds, the yield 4. From where do farmers obtain the went up to 3200 kg per hectare. There was a large increase in the production of inputs that they require? wheat. Farmers now had greater amounts of surplus wheat to sell in the markets. 3. Will the land sustain? Land being a natural resource, it is Let’s Discuss necessary to be careful in its use. What is the difference between multiple Scientific reports indicate that the modern cropping and modern farming method? farming methods have overused the The following table shows the natural resource base. production of wheat and pulses in India In many areas, Green Revolution is after the Green Revolution in units of associated with the loss of soil fertility million tonnes. Plot this on a graph. due to increased use of chemical Was the Green Revolution equally fertilisers. Also, continuous use of successful for both the crops? Discuss. groundwater for tubewell irrigation has What is the working capital required led to the depletion of the water-table. by the farmer using modern farming methods? Environmental resources, like soil fertility Table 1.2: Production of pulses and wheat and groundwater, are built up over years. ( in Million Tonnes) Once destroyed it is very difficult to restore them. We must take care of the Production Production of Pulses of Wheat environment to ensure future 1965 - 66 10 10 development of agriculture. 1970 - 71 12 24 1980 - 81 11 36 Suggested Activity 1990 - 91 14 55 2000 - 01 11 70 After reading the following reports from 2010 - 11 18 87 2012 - 13 18 94 newspapers/magazines, write a letter 2013 - 14 19 96 to the Agriculture Minister in your own 2014 - 15 17 87 2015 - 16 17 94 words telling him how the use of 2016 - 17 23 99 chemical fertilisers can be harmful. 2017 - 18 25 100 2018 - 19 23 104 2019 - 20 23 108...Chemical fertilisers provide 2020 - 21 25 110 2021 - 22 28 107 minerals which dissolve in water and Source: Pocket book of agricultural Statistics 2022, are immediately available to plants. Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of But these may not be retained in the Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare. The Story of Village Palampur 5 2024-25  Picture 1.5 Palampur village: Distribution of cultivated land land, 240 families cultivate small plots soil for long. They may escape from of land less than 2 hectares in size. the soil and pollute groundwater, Cultivation of such plots doesn’t bring rivers and lakes. Chemical fertilizers adequate income to the farmer family. can also kill bacteria and other micro- organisms in the soil. This means In 1960, Gobind was a farmer with some time after their use, the soil will 2.25 hectares of largely unirrigated be less fertile than ever land. With the help of his three sons before....(Source: Down to Earth, New Gobind cultivated the land. Though Delhi) they didn’t live very comfortably, the family managed to feed itself with a.....The consumption of chemical little bit of extra income from one fertilizers in Punjab is highest in the buffalo that the family possessed. country. The continuous use of chemical Some years after Gobind’s death, this fertilizers has led to degradation of soil land was divided among his three health. Punjab farmers are now forced to use more and more chemical sons. Each one now has a plot of land fertilizers and other inputs to achieve that is only 0.75 hectare in size. Even the same production level. This means with improved irrigation and modern cost of cultivation is rising very farming method, Gobind’s sons are fast.....(Source: The Tribune, not able to make a living from their Chandigarh) land. They have to look for additional work during part of the year. You can see the large number of small 4. How is land distributed between plots scattered around the village in the the farmers of Palampur? picture. These are cultivated by the small You must have realised how important farmers. On the other hand, more than land is for farming. Unfortunately, not all half the area of the village is covered by the people engaged in agriculture have plots that are quite large in size. In sufficient land for cultivation. In Palampur, Palampur, there are 60 families of medium about one third of the 450 families are and large farmers who cultivate more landless, i.e. 150 families, most of them than 2 hectares of land. A few of the large dalits, have no land for cultivation. farmers have land extending over 10 Of the remaining families who own hectares or more. 6 Economics 2024-25 Picture 1.6 Work on the fields: Wheat crop— ploughing by bullocks, sowing, spraying of insecticides, cultivation by traditional method, cultivation by modern method, and cutting of crops. Let’s Discuss Let’s Discuss In the Picture 1.5, can you shade the Would you agree that the distribution land cultivated by the small farmers? of cultivated land is unequal in Why do so many families of farmers Palampur? Do you find a similar cultivate such small plots of land? situation for India? Explain. The distribution of farmers in India and the amount of land they cultivate is given 5. Who will provide the labour? in the following Graph 1.1. Discuss in the classroom. After land, labour is the next necessary Graph 1.1: Distribution of Cultivated Area factor for production. Farming requires a and Farmers great deal of hard work. Small farmers along with their families cultivate their own fields. Thus, they provide the labour required for farming themselves. Medium and large farmers hire farm labourers to work on their fields. Let’s Discuss Identify the work being done on the Medium, Semi-Medium & Large Farmers field in the Pictures 1.6 and arrange them in a proper sequence. Source: Pocket Book of Agriculture Statistics Farm labourers come either from 2020 and State of Indian Agriculture 2020, landless families or families cultivating Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare. small plots of land. Unlike farmers, farm labourers do not have a right over the The Story of Village Palampur 7 2024-25  Dala and Ramkali are among the poorest native of the village Picture 1.7 The conversation between Dala and Ramkali crops grown on the land. Instead they are labourer might be employed on a daily paid wages by the farmer for whom they basis, or for one particular farm activity work. Wages can be in cash or in kind like harvesting, or for the whole year. e.g. crop. Sometimes labourers get meals Dala is a landless farm labourer who also. Wages vary widely from region to works on daily wages in Palampur. This region, from crop to crop, from one farm means he must regularly look for work. The activity to another (like sowing and minimum wages for a farm labourer set by harvesting). There is also a wide variation the government is Rs 300 per day (March in the duration of employment. A farm 2019), but Dala gets only Rs 160. There is 8 Economics 2024-25 heavy competition for work among the farmer. Tejpal Singh agrees to give farm labourers in Palampur, so people Savita the loan at an interest rate of agree to work for lower wages. Dala 24 per cent for four months, which is complains about his situation to Ramkali, a very high interest rate. Savita also who is another farm labourer. has to promise to work on his field as Both Dala and Ramkali are among the a farm labourer during the harvest poorest people in the village. season at Rs 100 per day. As you can tell, this wage is quite low. Savita Let’s Discuss knows that she will have to work very Why are farm labourers like Dala and hard to complete harvesting on her Ramkali poor? own field, and then work as a farm Gosaipur and Majauli are two villages labourer for Tejpal Singh. The harvest in North Bihar. Out of a total of 850 time is a very busy time. As a mother households in the two villages, there of three children she has a lot of are more than 250 men who are household responsibilities. Savita employed in rural Punjab and Haryana agrees to these tough conditions as or in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat, Hyderabad she knows getting a loan is difficult or Nagpur. Such migration is common for a small farmer. in most villages across India. Why do 2. In contrast to the small farmers, the people migrate? Can you describe medium and large farmers have their (based on your imagination) the work own savings from farming. They are that the migrants of Gosaipur and thus able to arrange for the capital Majauli might do at the place of needed. How do these farmers have destination? their own savings? You shall find the answer in the next section. 6. The capital needed in farming You have already seen that the modern Let's discuss the story so far.... farming methods require a great deal of We have read about the three factors of capital, so that the farmer now needs production—land, labour and capital— more money than before. and how they are used in farming. Let us 1. Most small farmers have to borrow fill in the blanks given below. money to arrange for the capital. They Among the three factors of production, borrow from large farmers or the we found that labour is the most village moneylenders or the traders abundant factor of production. There are who supply various inputs for many people who are willing to work as cultivation. The rate of interest on farm labourers in the villages, whereas such loans is very high. They are put the opportunities of work are limited. They to great distress to repay the loan. belong to either landless families or Savita is a small farmer. She plans. They are paid low wages, to cultivate wheat on her 1 hectare of and lead a difficult life. land. Besides seeds, fertilizers and In contrast to labour, pesticides, she needs cash to buy is a scarce factor of production. Cultivated water and repair her farm land area is. Moreover, instruments. She estimates that the even the existing land is distributed working capital itself would cost a (equally/unequally) among minimum of Rs 3,000. She doesn’t the people engaged in farming. There are have the money, so she decides to a large number of small farmers who borrow from Tejpal Singh, a large cultivate small plots of land and live in The Story of Village Palampur 9 2024-25 conditions not much better than the Tejpal Singh, the large farmer, has a landless farm labourer. To make the surplus of 350 quintals of wheat from all maximum use of the existing land, his lands! He sells the surplus wheat at farmers use and the Raiganj market and has good earnings.. Both these have led to What does Tejpal Singh do with his increase in production of crops. earnings? Last year, Tejpal Singh had put most of the money in his bank account. Modern farming methods require a Later he used the savings for lending to great deal of. Small farmers like Savita who were in need of a farmers usually need to borrow money to loan. He also used the savings to arrange arrange for the capital, and are put to for the working capital for farming in the great distress to repay the loan. Therefore, next season. This year Tejpal Singh plans capital too is a scarce factor of production, to use his earnings to buy another tractor. particularly for the small farmers. Another tractor would increase his fixed Though both land and capital are capital. scarce, there is a basic difference between Like Tejpal Singh, other large and the two factors of production. medium farmers sell the surplus farm is a natural resource, products. A part of the earnings is saved whereas is man-made. It and kept for buying capital for the next is possible to increase capital, whereas season. Thus, they are able to arrange land is fixed. Therefore, it is very for the capital for farming from their own important that we take good care of land savings. Some farmers might also use the and other natural resources used in savings to buy cattle, trucks, or to set up farming. shops. As we shall see, these constitute the capital for non-farm activities. 7. Sale of Surplus Farm Products Let us suppose that the farmers have Non-Farm Activities in Palampur produced wheat on their lands using the We have learnt about farming as the main three factors of production. The wheat production activity in Palampur. We shall is harvested and production is complete. now take a look at some of the non-farm What do the farmers do with the wheat? production activities. Only 25 per cent They retain a part of the wheat for the of the people working in Palampur are family’s consumption and sell the engaged in activities other than surplus wheat. Small farmers like agriculture. Savita and Gobind’s sons have little surplus wheat because their total 1. Dairy — the other common production is small and from this a activity substantial share is kept for their own Dairy is a common activity in many families family needs. So it is the medium and of Palampur. People feed their buffalos on large farmers who supply wheat to the various kinds of grass and the jowar and market. In the Picture 1.1, you can see the bajra that grows during the rainy season. bullock cart streaming into the market The milk is sold in Raiganj, the nearby large each carrying loads of wheat. The traders village. Two traders from Shahpur town at the market buy the wheat and sell it have set up collection cum chilling centres further to shopkeepers in the towns and at Raiganj from where the milk is cities. transported to far away towns and cities. 10 Economics 2024-25  Let's Discuss Let us take three farmers. Each has grown wheat on his field though the production is different (see Column 2). The consumption of wheat by each farmer family is the same (Column 3). The whole of surplus wheat this year is used as capital for next year’s production. Also suppose, production is twice the capital used in production. Complete the tables. Farmer 1 Production Consumption Surplus = Capital for the Production – next year Consumption Year 1 100 40 60 60 Year 2 120 40 Year 3 40 Farmer 2 Production Consumption Surplus Capital for the next year Year 1 80 40 Year 2 40 Year 3 40 Farmer 3 Production Consumption Surplus Capital for the next year Year 1 60 40 Year 2 40 Year 3 40 Let’s Discuss Compare the production of wheat by the three farmers over the years. What happens to Farmer 3 in Year 3? Can he continue production? What will he have to do to continue production? 2. An example of small-scale Unlike the manufacturing that takes manufacturing in Palampur place in the big factories in the towns At present, less than fifty people are and cities, manufacturing in Palampur engaged in manufacturing in Palampur. involves very simple production methods The Story of Village Palampur 11 2024-25 and are done on a small scale. They are carried out mostly at home or in the fields Kareem has opened a computer class with the help of family labour. Rarely are centre in the village. In recent years labourers hired. a large number of students have been attending college in Shahpur town. Kareem found that a number of Mishrilal has purchased a students from the village are also mechanical sugarcane crushing attending computer classes in the machine run on electricity and has town. There were two women in the set it up on his field. Sugarcane village who had a degree in computer crushing was earlier done with the applications. He decided to employ help of bullocks, but people prefer to them. He bought computers and set do it by machines these days. up the classes in the front room of Mishrilal also buys sugarcane from their house overlooking the market. other farmers and processes it into High school students have started jaggery. The jaggery is then sold to attending them in good numbers. traders at Shahpur. In the process, Mishrilal makes a small profit. Let’s Discuss Let’s Discuss In what ways is Kareem’s capital and labour different from Mishrilal’s? What capital did Mishrilal need to set Why didn’t someone start a computer up his jaggery manufacturing unit? centre earlier? Discuss the possible Who provides the labour in this case? reasons. Can you guess why Mishrilal is unable to increase his profit? 4. Transport: a fast developing Could you think of any reasons when sector he might face a loss? There are variety of vehicles on the road Why does Mishrilal sell his jaggery to connecting Palampur to Raiganj. traders in Shahpur and not in his Rickshawallahs, tongawallahs, jeep, village? tractor, truck drivers and people driving the traditional bullock cart and bogey are 3. The shopkeepers of Palampur people in the transport services. They ferry people and goods from one place to People involved in trade (exchange of another, and in return get paid for it. The goods) are not many in Palampur. The number of people involved in transport traders of Palampur are shopkeepers who has grown over the last several years. buy various goods from wholesale markets in the cities and sell them in Kishora is a farm labourer. Like other the village. You will see small general such labourers, Kishora found it stores in the village selling a wide range difficult to meet his family’s needs from of items like rice, wheat, sugar, tea, oil, the wages that he received. A few years biscuits, soap, toothpaste, batteries, back Kishora took a loan from the candles, notebooks, pen, pencil, even bank. This was under a government some cloth. A few of the families whose programme which was giving cheap houses are close to the bus stand have loans to poor landless households. used a part of the space to open small Kishora bought a buffalo with this shops. They sell eatables. money. He now sells the buffalo’s milk. 12 Economics 2024-25 Further, he has attached a wooden cart Let’s Discuss to his buffalo and uses it to transport What is Kishora’s fixed capital? various items. Once a week, he goes to What do you think would be his the river Ganga to bring back clay for working capital? the potter. Or sometimes he goes to Shahpur with a load of jaggery or other In how many production activities is commodities. Every month he gets some Kishora involved? work in transport. As a result, Kishora Would you say that K ishora has is able to earn more than what he used benefitted from better roads in to do some years back. Palampur? Summary Farming is the main production activity in the village. Over the years there have been many important changes in the way farming is practiced. These have allowed the farmers to produce more crops from the same amount of land. This is an important achievement, since land is fixed and scarce. But in raising production a great deal of pressure has been put on land and other natural resources. The new ways of farming need less land, but much more of capital. The medium and large farmers are able to use their own savings from production to arrange for capital during the next season. On the other hand, the small farmers who constitute about 80 per cent of total farmers in India, find it difficult to obtain capital. Because of the small size of their plots, their production is not enough. The lack of surplus means that they are unable to obtain capital from their own savings, and have to borrow. Besides the debt, many of the small farmers have to do additional work as farm labourers to feed themselves and their families. Labour being the most abundant factor of production, it would be ideal if new ways of farming used much more labour. Unfortunately, such a thing has not happened. The use of labour on farms is limited. The labour, looking for opportunities is thus migrating to neighbouring villages, towns and cities. Some labour has entered the non-farm sector in the village. At present, the non-farm sector in the village is not very large. Out of every 100 workers in the rural areas in India, only 24 are engaged in non-farm activities. Though there is a variety of non-farm activities in the villages (we have only seen a few examples), the number of people employed in each is quite small. In the future, one would like to see more non-farm production activities in the village. Unlike farming, non-farm activities require little land. People with some amount of capital can set up non-farm activities. How does one obtain this capital? One can either use his own savings, but more often has to take a loan. It is important that loan be available at low rate of interest so that even people without savings can start some non-farm activity. Another thing which is essential for expansion of non-farm activities is to have markets where the goods and services produced can be sold. In Palampur, we saw the neighbouring villages, towns and cities provide the markets for milk, jaggery, wheat, etc. As more villages get connected to towns and cities through good roads, transport and telephone, it is possible that the opportunities for non-farm activities in the village would increase in the coming years. The Story of Village Palampur 13 2024-25  Exercises 1. Every village in India is surveyed once in ten years during the Census and some of details are presented in the following format. Fill up the following based on information on Palampur. a. LOCATION: b. TOTAL AREA OF THE VILLAGE: c. LAND USE (in hectares): Cultivated Land Land not available for cultivation (Area covering dwellings, roads, Irrigated Unirrigated ponds, grazing ground) 26 hectares d. FACILITIES: Educational Medical Market Electricity Supply Communication Nearest Town 2. Modern farming methods require more inputs which are manufactured in industry. Do you agree? 3. How did the spread of electricity help farmers in Palampur? 4. Is it important to increase the area under irrigation? Why? 5. Construct a table on the distribution of land among the 450 families of Palampur. 6. Why are the wages for farm labourers in Palampur less than minimum wages? 7. In your region, talk to two labourers. Choose either farm labourers or labourers working at construction sites. What wages do they get? Are they paid in cash or kind? Do they get work regularly? Are they in debt? 8. What are the different ways of increasing production on the same piece of land? Use examples to explain. 9. Describe the work of a farmer with 1 hectare of land. 10. How do the medium and large farmers obtain capital for farming? How is it different from the small farmers? 11. On what terms did Savita get a loan from Tajpal Singh? Would Savita’s condition be different if she could get a loan from the bank at a low rate of interest? 12. Talk to some old residents in your region and write a short report on the changes in irrigation and changes in production methods during the last 30 years. (Optional) 14 Economics 2024-25 13. What are the non-farm production activities taking place in your region? Make a short list. 14. What can be done so that more non-farm production activities can be started in villages? References ETIENNE, GILBERT. 1985. Rural Development in Asia: Meetings with Peasants, Sage Publications, New Delhi. ETIENNE, GILBERT. 1988. Food and Poverty: India’s Half Won Battle, Sage Publications, New Delhi. RAJ, K.N. 1991. ‘Village India and its Political Economy’ in C.T. Kurien (Edited) Economy, Society and Development, Sage Publications, New Delhi THORNER, DANIEL AND ALICE THORNER. 1962. Land and Labour in India, Asia Publishing House, Bombay. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/policy/government-hikes- minimumwage-for-agriculture-labourer/articleshow/57408252.cms The Story of Village Palampur 15 2024-25