Chapter1. The Story of Village Palampur
Exercise:
Q1. 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, ponds, grazing ground) |
|
| Irigated | Unirrigated | |
| 26 hectares | ||
d. facilities:
| Educational | |
| Medical | |
| Market | |
| Electricity supply | |
| Comunication | |
| Nearest Town |
Answer:
a. LOCATION: Bulandshahar district, Western Uttar Pradesh.
b. TOTAL AREA OF THE VILLAGE: 226 hectares.
c. LAND USE (in hectares):
| Cultivated Land | Land not available for cultivation (Area covering dwellings, roads, ponds, grazing ground) |
|
| Irigated | Unirrigated | |
| 200 hectares | 26 hectares | |
d. facilities:
| Educational | 1 High school and 2 primary schools |
| Medical | 1 primary health centre run by the government and one private dispensary. |
| Market | Raiganj and Shahpur |
| Electricity supply | Most of the houses have electric connections. Electricity powers all the tubewells in the fields and is used in various types of small business. |
| Comunication | Palampur is well-connected with neighbouring villages and towns. Raiganj, a big village, is 3 kms from Palampur. An all weather road connects the village to Raiganj and further on to the nearest small town of Shahpur. Many kinds of transport are visible on this road starting from bullock carts, tongas, bogeys (wooden cart drawn by buffalos) loaded with jaggery (gur) and other commodities to motor vehicles like motorcycles, jeeps, tractors and trucks. |
| Nearest Town | Shahpur |
Q2. 2. Modern farming methods require more inputs which are manufactured in
industry. Do you agree?
Answer:
Yes, Modern farming methods make a greater use of industrial output as compared to traditional farming methods.
(i) These involves many of the modern practises like high-Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds to increse the crop production, such seeds come from industries.
(ii) to get better crops and their production, there are used varieties of fertilisers, presticides, other chemicals in modern farming.
(iii) Using of agricultural imlements like tractor, pumping set, electric tube well, threshing machines give best reasult.
(iv) There are so many scientific technique that are manufactured in industry.
Q3. How did the spread of electricity help farmers in Palampur?
Answer:
The spread of electricity help farmers in Palampur in the following ways;
(i) Most of the houses of Palampur have electricity connection that is an important sign of developed village.
(ii) The spread of electricity helps farmers to increase their agriculture production to run tube well and save money and time.
(iii) Farmers also use electricity in dairy bussiness and other small bussiness.
Q4. Is it important to increase the area under irrigation? Why?
Answer:
There are followinf reasons to increse the area under irrigation.
(i) India is an agricultural bases country, 70% of people dependent on farming and it is their livlihood.
(ii) A little area is available for irrigation that means land for farming.
(iii) Every year 30 - 40 % of the area under irrigation faces flood either dry.
(iv) Modern agriculture methods are not uses in dependent farming it needs to be bussiness farming.
(v) The daily requirement of grains cannot be achieved by these areas of irrigation so it is important to increase the area under irrigation.
Q5. Construct a table on the distribution of land among the 450 families of Palampur.
Answer:
| Number of families | Land (hectare) |
| 150 | 0 |
| 240 | Less than 2 |
| 60 | More than 2 |
Q6. Why are the wages for farm labourers in Palampur less than minimum wages?
Answer:
There are following reasons for the wages for farm labourers in Palampur less than minimum wages.
(i) The number of landless farm labourers are more in Palamapur.
(ii) There is heavy competition for work among the farm labourers in Palampur.
(iii) The farm labourer who takes less wage he/she gets work easily.
(iv) Most of the farm labourers agreed to work on less than minimum wages.
Q7. 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?
Answer:
Q8. What are the different ways of increasing production on the same piece of land? Use examples to explain.
Answer:
There are many different ways of incresing production on the same piece of land.
(i) Adopting Multiple croping: In this practises there is grown more than one crops in a years gives much better productions.
(ii) Using modern farming methods: Modern farming method is a lifeline of many crop revolutions. These save labours as well as time and using these can increase the area under irrigation.
(iii) using High yeilding variety seed: Such types of seeds are grown by breeding methods to increase the farming productions.
(iv) Using appropriate fertilisers, chemical, mannurs and presticides as well as irrigation in time.
Q9. Describe the work of a farmer with 1 hectare of land.
Answer:
A farmer with 1 hectare of land shall put under the category of small farmer. Most of the work would be done by the farmer and his family members. The farmer will normally use a pair of bullocks to plough the field. His family members would assist him in sowing the seeds. During harvest time, he may require to hire some labourers.
Q10. How do the medium and large farmers obtain capital for farming? How is it different from the small farmers?
Answer:
The medium and large farmers obtain capital from farming as;
(i) The medium and large farmers have their own previous year savings from farming.
(ii) They produce more grains than they use, this is the one of cause of their savings.
(iii) They use modern farming method and also use HYV seeds. They are thus able to arrange for the capital needed.
But the small farmers are not able to save from previous year production so that they have to borrow money to arrange for the capital.
(i) They borrow from large farmers or the village moneylenders or the traders who supply various inputs for cultivation.
(ii) The rate of interest on such loans is very high.
(iii) They are put to great distress to repay the loan.
Q11. 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?
Answer:
The terms at which Savita get a loan from Tejpal Singh;
(i) She agreed to take loan of Rs. 3000 at interest of 24 % for four month from Tejpal Singh.
(ii) Tejpal singh also got her to agreed to work on his field during the harvest season for Rs. 35 a day.
Yes. Savita’s condition would have been better if she could get a loan from the bank. The bank would have provided her the loan at a low rate of interest. Moreover, Savita could have devoted more time on her own field instead of working for Tejpal Singh as farm labourer.
Q12. 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)
Answer:
Q13. What are the non-farm production activities taking place in your region? Make a short list.
Answer:
(i) Dairy work
(ii) Shopkeering
(iii) Transport
(iv) Construction
Q14. What can be done so that more non-farm production activities can be started in villages?
Answer:
Three things that need to be done to encourage non-farm production activities in villages:
(i) The government should set up schemes through banks for providing cheap loans to start small individual/community businesses for landless labourers and small farmers.
(ii) In addition to financial assistance, the government should set up rural workshops to enable the villagers to build on and improve their skill levels.
(iii) The government should also work towards improving the infrastructure of villages so that the rural parts of the country are well connected to the urban areas.
(iv) Government should start a new syllabus in education for children about agricultural knowledge as well as modern methods to farm.
