NCERT Notes for Class 12 Economics Chapter 6 RURAL DEVELOPMENT

by

Class 12 Economics Chapter 6 RURAL DEVELOPMENT

NCERT Notes for Class 12 Economics Chapter 6 RURAL DEVELOPMENT, (Economics) exam are Students are taught thru NCERT books in some of the state board and CBSE Schools. As the chapter involves an end, there is an exercise provided to assist students to prepare for evaluation. Students need to clear up those exercises very well because the questions inside the very last asked from those.

Sometimes, students get stuck inside the exercises and are not able to clear up all of the questions.  To assist students, solve all of the questions, and maintain their studies without a doubt, we have provided step-by-step NCERT Notes for the students for all classes.  These answers will similarly help students in scoring better marks with the assist of properly illustrated Notes as a way to similarly assist the students and answer the questions right

NCERT Notes for Class 12 Economics Chapter 6 RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Class 12 Economics Chapter 6 RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

WHAT IS RURAL DEVELOPMENT?

  • Rural development essentially focuses on the action for the development of areas that are lagging behind in the overall development of the village economy.
  • Agriculture is the major source of livelihood in the rural sector.
  • Rural development include:
  1. Development of human resources including – male and female literacy,
  2. education and skill development,
  3. focusing both sanitation and public health.
  • Land reforms.
  • Development of the productive resources of each locality.
  • Infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, transport facilities etc.
  • Special measures for alleviation of poverty.

CREDIT AND MARKETING IN RURAL AREAS

  • From time-to-time growth of rural economy primarily depends up on capital to realise the higher productivity in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors.
  • At the time of independence, moneylenders and traders exploited small and marginal farmers and landless labourers by lending to them on high interest rates and by manipulating the accounts to keep them in a debt-trap.
  • After 1969 India adopted social banking and multiagency approach to meet the needs of rural credit.
  • In 1982 as an apex body, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was formed to coordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.
  • In 1995, a thrift and credit society was started as a small savings bank for poor women with the objective to encourage savings. (The Poor Women’s Bank)
  • The institutional structure of rural banking today consists of a set of multiagency institutions, such as commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), cooperatives and land development banks.
  • Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged to fill the gap in the formal credit system.( Such credit provisions are generally referred to as micro-credit programmes)
  • SHGs have helped in the empowerment of women.

Rural Banking — a Critical Appraisal:

  • Formal credit institutions have failed to develop a culture of deposit mobilisation.
  • Agriculture loan default rates have been chronically high.
  • The expansion and promotion of the rural banking sector has not all performed well.
  • The relationship between rural farmers and credit institutions were not up to the mark.

AGRICULTURAL MARKET SYSTEM

  • Prior to independence, farmers selling their products to traders. Traders followed faulty weighing and manipulation of accounts.
  • Farmers did not have any information on prices prevailing in the market.
  • To improve the marketing condition, the first step was to regulate the markets, to create orderly and transparent marketing condition.
  • Second component is provision of physical infrastructure facilities like roads, railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storages and processing units.
  • Cooperative marketing is the third aspect of government initiative for marketing system.
  • The fourth element is the policy instruments like:
  1. assurance of minimum support prices (MSP) for agricultural products
  2. maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by Food Corporation of India and
  3. distribution of food grains and sugar through PDS.
  • These instruments are aimed at protecting the income of the farmers and providing food grains at a subsidized rate to the poor.

Emerging Alternate Marketing Channels

  • By these farmers directly sell their products to consumers, it increases their incomes.
  • Several national and multinational fast-food chains are increasingly entering into contracts or alliances with farmers to encourage them to cultivate farm products of the desired quality by providing them with not only seeds and other inputs but also assured procurement of the produce at pre-decided prices.

DIVERSIFICATION INTO PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES

  • Diversification includes two aspects one relates to change in cropping pattern and the other relates to a shift of workforce from agriculture to other allied activities (livestock, poultry, fisheries etc.) and non-agriculture sector.
  • Diversification reduces risk from agriculture sector and to provide productive sustainable livelihood to rural people.
  • As agriculture is already overcrowded, a major proportion of the increasing labour force needs to find alternate employment opportunities in other non-farm sectors.
  • The dynamic non-farm sectors include agro-processing industries, food processing industries, leather industry, tourism, etc.
  • Majority of rural women find employment in agriculture while men generally look for non-farm employment.

 

(i)Animal Husbandry

  • India, the farming community uses the mixed crop, cattle, goats, fowl livestock farming system
  • Livestock Production provides increased stability in income, food security, transport, fuel, and nutrition for the society.
  • Milk production in the country has increased by more than eight times between 1951-2014. This can be attributed to the successful implementation of ‘Operation Flood’.
  • Meat, eggs, wool and other byproducts are also emerging as important productive sectors for diversification.

(ii)Fisheries:

  • The fishing community regards the water body as ‘mother’ or ‘provider’.
  • The water bodies consisting of sea, oceans, rivers, lakes, natural aquatic ponds, streams etc. are an integral and life-giving source for the fishing community.
  • Today total fish production accounts for 0.8 per cent of the total GDP.
  • A large number of fish worker families are poor.
  • Underemployment, low per capita earnings, absence of mobility of labour to other sectors and a high rate of illiteracy and indebtedness are some of the major problems fishing community face today.

(iii)Horticulture

  • India has adopted growing of diverse horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, spices, and plantation crops.
  • These crops play a vital role in providing food and nutrition and helps in reducing unemployment.
  • Horticulture sector contributes nearly one-third of the value of agriculture output and six per cent of Gross Domestic Product of India.
  • India has emerged as a world leader in producing a variety of fruits like mangoes, bananas, coconuts, cashew nuts and a number of spices.
  • Flower harvesting, nursery maintenance, tissue culture, food processing etc are largely created employment opportunities for women in rural areas.
  • Notable change in horticulture occurs during the period between 1991-2003.(golden revolution)
  • Horticulture has emerged as a successful sustainable livelihood option and needs to be encouraged widely.

(iv)Other Alternate Livelihood Options

  • Now days IT has revolutionised many sectors in the Indian economy.
  • IT can play a critical role in achieving sustainable development in agriculture, food security etc through technologies and its applications.
  • It played a vital role in employment generation in rural areas.

 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIC FARMING

  • In recent years, awareness of the harmful effect of chemical-based fertilisers and pesticides on our health is widely noticed.
  • Conventional agriculture relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides etc.
  • It will adversely affect the food supply, water sources, livestock, soil and natural eco-systems.
  • Technologies which are eco-friendly are essential for sustainable development .
  • One such eco-friendly technology is organic farming.
  • Organic agriculture is a system of farming that restores, maintains and enhances the ecological balance.
  • In October 2014, The Government of India introduced a new scheme called Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). Under this scheme, Members of India’s Parliament need to identify and develop one village from their constituencies.

Benefits of Organic Farming

  • Organic agriculture offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural inputs with locally produced organic inputs that are cheaper and thereby generate good returns on investment.
  • Organic agriculture generates income through exports.
  • Organically grown food has more nutritional value than chemical farming, thereby providing us with healthy foods.
  • It is pesticide-free and produced in an environmentally sustainable way.
  • Organic farming helps in sustainable development of agriculture.  Organic products had both domestic and international demand.
  • The limiting aspect of organic farming is that the yields from organic farming are less than modern agricultural farming.
  • Popularising organic farming requires awareness and willingness on the part of farmers to adapt with new technology.
  • Choice in production of off-season crops is quite limited in organic farming

Leave a Comment