1. Small scale manufacturing, dairy, transport, etc. are production activities need various types of resources — natural resources, manmade items, human effort, money, etc.
2. India, farming is the main production activity. The other production activities, referred to as nonfarm activities include small manufacturing, transport, shop-keeping, etc.
2. India, farming is the main production activity. The other production activities, referred to as nonfarm activities include small manufacturing, transport, shop-keeping, etc.
3. The aim of production is to produce the goods and services that we want. There are four requirements for production of goods and services.
4. The first requirement is land, and other natural resources such as water, forests and 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. The third requirement is physical capital, i.e. the variety of inputs required at every stage during production.
5. (a) Tools, machines, buildings: Tools and machines range from very simple tools such as a farmer’s plough to sophisticated machines such as generators, turbines, computers, etc. Tools, machines, buildings can be used in production over many years, and are called fixed capital.
6. (b) Raw materials and money in hand: Production requires a variety of raw materials such as the yarn used by the weaver and the clay used by the potter. Also, some money is always required during production to make payments and buy other necessary items. Raw materials and money in hand are called working capital.
7. Every production is organised by combining land, labour, physical capital and human capital, which are known as factors of production.
8. 75 per cent of the people who are working are dependent on farming for their livelihood. They could be farmers or farm labourers.
9. There is a basic constraint in raising farm production. Land area under cultivation is practically fixed.
10. Some of the wastelands in the village had been converted to cultivable land.
11. The standard unit of measuring land is hectare. One hectare equals the area of a square with one side measuring 100 metres.
12. During the rainy season (kharif) farmers grow jowar and bajra. These plants are used as cattle feed. It is followed by cultivation of potato between October and December. In the winter season (rabi), fields are sown with wheat.
13. A part of the land area is also devoted to sugarcane which is harvested once every year.
14. Persian wheels were, till then, used by farmers to draw water from the wells and irrigate small fields. People saw that the electric-run tubewells could irrigate much larger areas of land more effectively.
15. Apart from the riverine plains, coastal regions in our country are well-irrigated. In contrast, plateau regions such as the Deccan plateau have low levels of irrigation. Of the total cultivated area in the country a little less than 40 per cent is irrigated even today. In the remaining areas, farming is largely dependent on rainfall.
16. To grow more than one crop on a piece of land during the year is known as multiple cropping.
17. One way of increasing production from the same land is by multiple cropping. The other way is to use modern farming methods for higher yield.
18. Traditional seeds needed less irrigation. Farmers used cow-dung and other natural manure as fertilizers.
19. The Green Revolution in the late 1960s introduced the Indian farmer to cultivation of wheat and rice using high yielding varieties (HYVs) of seeds.
20. HYV seeds promised to produce much greater amounts of grain on a single plant. HYV seeds, however, needed plenty of water and also chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce best results.
21. Farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh were the first to try out the modern farming method in India. The farmers in these regions set up tubewells for irrigation, and made use of HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides in farming. Some of them bought farm machinery like tractors and threshers, which made ploughing and harvesting faster. They were rewarded with high yields of wheat.
22. Land being a natural resource, it is necessary to be very careful in its use. Scientific reports indicate that the modern farming methods have overused the natural resource base.
23. Green Revolution is associated with the loss of soil fertility due to increased use of chemical fertilizers. Also, continuous use of groundwater for tubewell irrigation has reduced the water -table below the ground.
24. We must take care of the environment to ensure future development of agriculture.
25. Chemical fertilizers provide minerals which dissolve in water and are immediately available to plants.
26. Chemical fertilizers can also kill bacteria and other microorganisms in the soil. This means some time after their use, the soil will be less fertile than ever before.
27. After land, labour is the next necessary factor for production. Farming requires a 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.
28. Farm labourers come either from landless families or families cultivating small plots of land.
29. The modern farming methods require a great deal of capital, so that the farmer now needs more money than before.
30. Most small farmers have to borrow money to arrange for the capital. They borrow from large farmers or the village moneylenders or the traders who supply various inputs for cultivation. The rate of interest on such loans is very high. They are put to great distress to repay the loan.
31. The harvest time is a very busy time. labour is the most abundant factor of production.
32. Large and medium farmers sell the surplus farm products. A part of the earnings is saved and kept for buying capital for the next season.
33. Farmers might also use the savings to buy cattle, trucks, or to set up shops.
34. People feed their buffalos on various kinds of grass and the jowar and bajra that grows during the rainy season.
35. You will see small general stores in the village selling a wide range of items like rice, wheat, sugar, tea, oil, biscuits, soap, toothpaste, batteries, candles, notebooks, pen, pencil, even some cloth. A few of the families whose houses are close to the bus stand have used a part of the space to open small shops. They sell eatables.
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.
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