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A story of village palampur a village which has a

A story of village palampur
a village which has all facilities like hospitals , factories , roads , police station, electricity all facility available
so lets start this story with a peacful mind

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
combine to produce the desired goods and
services in the village.
Introduction
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.
This village has about 450 families
belonging to several different castes. The
80 upper caste families own the majority
of land in the village. Their houses, some
of them quite large, are made of brick with
cement plastering. The SCs (dalits)
comprise one third of the population and
live in one corner of the village and in
much smaller houses some of which are
of mud and straw. Most of the houses have
electric connections. Electricity powers all
the tubewells in the fields and is used in
various types of small business. Palampur
has two primary schools and one high
school. There is a primary health centre
run by the government and one private
dispensary where the sick are treated.
• The description above shows that
Palampur has fairly well-developed
system of roads, transport, electricity,
irrigation, schools and health centre.
Compare these facilities with those in
your nearby village.
The story of Palampur, an imaginary
village, will take us through the different
types of production activities in the
village. In villages across India, farming
is the main production activity. The other
production activities, referred to as non-
farm activities include small
manufacturing, transport, shop-keeping,
etc. We shall take a look at both these
types of activities, after learning a few
general things about production.
The Story of Village Palampur
1
Chapter
Picture 1.1 Scene of a village
* The narrative is partly based on a research study by Gilbert Etienne of a village in Bulandshahr district in Western
The aim of production is to produce the
goods and services that we want. There
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
capital?
(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.
(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.
Unlike tools, machines and buildings,
these are used up in production.
There is a fourth requirement too. You
will need knowledge and enterprise to be
able to put together land, labour and
physical capital and produce an output
either to use yourself or to sell in the
market. This these days is called human
capital. We shall learn more about human
capital in the next chapter.
• In the picture, identify the land, labour
and fixed capital used in production.
Picture 1.2 A factory, with several labourers
and machines
Every production is organised by
combining land, labour, physical capital
and human capital, which are known as
factors of production. As we read
through the story of Palampur, we will
learn more about the first three factors
of production. For convenience, we will
refer to the physical capital as the capital
in this chapter.
Farming in Palampur
1. Land is fixed
Farming is the main production activity
in Palampur. 75 per cent of the people
who are working are dependent on
farming for their livelihood. They could
be farmers or farm labourers. The well-
being of these people is closely related to
production on the farms.
But remember that there is a basic
constraint in raising farm production.
Land area under cultivation is practically
fixed. Since 1960 in Palampur, there has
been no expansion in land area under
cultivation. By then, some of the
wastelands in the village had been
converted to cultivable land. There exists
no further scope to increase farm
production by bringing new land under
cultivation.
larger areas of land more effectively. The
first few tubewells were installed by the
government. Soon, however, farmers
started setting up private tubewells. As a
result, by mid-1970s the entire cultivated
area of 200 hectares (ha.) was irrigated.
The standard unit of measuring land
is hectare, though in the villages you
may find land area being discussed
in local units such as bigha, guintha
etc. One hectare equals the area of a
square with one side measuring 100
metres. Can you compare the area of
a 1 hectare field with the area of your
school ground?
2. Is there a way one can grow more
from the same land?
In the kind of crops grown and facilities
available, Palampur would resemble a
village of the western part of the state of
Uttar Pradesh. All land is cultivated in
Palampur. No land is left idle. 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. 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
to grow three different crops in a year in
Palampur is due to the well-developed
system of irrigation. Electricity came early
to Palampur. Its major impact was to
transform the system of irrigation.
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
Not all villages in India have such
high levels of irrigation. 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.
To grow more than one crop on a piece of
land during the year is known as multiple
cropping. It is the most common way of
increasing production on a given piece of
land. All farmers in Palampur grow
atleast two main crops; many are growing
potato as the third crop in the past fifteen
to twenty years.
Picture 1.3 Different crops
Let’s Discuss
• The following Table1.1 shows the land
under cultivation in India in units of
million hectares. Plot this on the graph
provided. What does the graph show?

Picture 1.4 Modern Farming Methods: HYV
seeds, chemical fertilizer etc.
Table 1.1: Cultivated area over the years
• 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
way is to use modern farming methods
Modern farming methods require the
farmer to start with more cash than
before. Why?
Suggested Activity
• During your field visit talk to some
farmers of your region. Find out:
1. What kind of farming methods—
modern or traditional or mixed— do
the farmers use? Write a note.
2. What are the sources of irrigation?
3. How much of the cultivated land is
irrigated? (very little/nearly half/
majority/all)
4. From where do farmers obtain the
inputs that they require?
3. Will the land sustain?
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.
In many areas, 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. Environmental resources like soil
fertility and groundwater are built up over
many years. Once destroyed it is very
difficult to restore them. We must take
care of the environment to ensure future
development of agriculture.
Suggested Activity
• After reading the following reports from
newspapers/magazines, write a letter
to the Agriculture Minister in your own
words telling him how the use of
chemical fertilizers can be harmful.
Production Production
of Pulses of Wheat
1965 - 66 10 10
1970 - 71 12 24
1980 - 81 11 36
1990 - 91 14 55
2000 - 01 11 70
2010 - 11 18 86
2012 - 13 18 92
Table 1.2: Production of pulses and
wheat (Million tones)
....Chemical fertilizers provide
minerals which dissolve in water and
are immediately available to plants.
But these may not be retained in the
Source: Directorate of Economics and
Statistics, Department of Agriculture and
Cooperative, 2010-11, 2013 Pocket book on
agricultural statistics.
pesticides to produce best results. Higher
yields were possible only from a
combination of HYV seeds, irrigation,
chemical fertilisers, pesticides etc.
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.
In Palampur, the yield of wheat grown
from the traditional varieties was 1300 kg
per hectare. With the HYV seeds, the yield
went up to 3200 kg per hectare. There
was a large increase in the production of
wheat. Farmers now had greater amounts
of surplus wheat to sell in the markets.
Let’s Discuss
• What is the difference between multiple
cropping and modern farming method?
• The following table shows the
production of wheat and pulses in
India after the Green revolution in
units of million tonnes. Plot this on a
graph. Was the Gr een revolution
equally successful for both the crops?
Discuss.
• What is the working capital required
by the farmer using modern far
heavy competition for work among the
farm labourers in Palampur, so people
agree to work for lower wages. Dala
complains about his situation to Ramkali,
who is another farm labourer.
Both Dala and Ramkali are among the
poorest people in the village.
Let’s Discuss
• Why are farm labourers like Dala and
Ramkali poor?
• Gosaipur and Majauli are two villages
in North Bihar. Out of a total of 850
households in the two villages, there
are more than 250 men who are
employed in rural Punjab and Haryana
or in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat, Hyderabad
or Nagpur. Such migration is common
in most villages across India. Why do
people migrate? Can you describe
(based on your imagination) the work
that the migrants of Gosaipur and
Majauli might do at the place of
destination?
6. The capital needed in farming
You have already seen that the modern
farming methods require a great deal of
capital, so that the farmer now needs
more money than before.
1. 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.
Savita is a small farmer. She plans
to cultivate wheat on her 1 hectare of
land. Besides seeds, fertilizers and
pesticides, she needs cash to buy
water and repair her farm
instruments. She estimates that the
working capital itself would cost a
minimum of Rs 3,000. She doesn’t
have the money, so she decides to
borrow from Tejpal Singh, a large
farmer. Tejpal Singh agrees to give
Savita the loan at an interest rate of
24 per cent for four months, which is
a very high interest rate. Savita also
has to promise to work on his field as
a farm labourer during the harvest
season at Rs 35 per day. As you can
tell, this wage is quite low. Savita
knows that she will have to work very
hard to complete harvesting on her
own field, and then work as a farm
labourer for Tejpal Singh. The harvest
time is a very busy time. As a mother
of three children she has a lot of
household responsibilities. Savita
agrees to these tough conditions as
she knows getting a loan is difficult
for a small farmer.
2. In contrast to the small farmers, the
medium and large farmers have their
own savings from farming. They are
thus able to arrange for the capital
needed. How do these farmers have
their own savings? You shall find the
answer in the next section.
Let's discuss the story so far....
We have read about the three factors of
production—land, labour and capital—
and how they are used in farming. Let us
fill in the blanks given below.
Among the three factors of production,
we found that labour is the most
abundant factor of production. There are
many people who are willing to work as
farm labourers in the villages, whereas
the opportunities of work are limited. They
belong to either landless families or
. They are paid low wages,
and lead a difficult life.
In contrast to labour,
is a scarce factor of production. Cultivated
land area is . Moreover,
even the existing land is distributed
(equally/unequally) among
the people engaged in farming. There are
a large number of small farmers who
cultivate small plots of land and live in
2015-16
conditions not much better than the
landless farm labourer. To make the
maximum use of the existing land,
farmers use and
. Both these have led to
increase in production of crops.
Modern farming methods require a
great deal of . Small
farmers usually need to borrow money to
arrange for the capital, and are put to
great distress to repay the loan. Therefore,
capital too is a scarce factor of production,
particularly for the small farmers.
Though both land and capital are
scarce, there is a basic difference between
the two factors of production.
is a natural resource,
whereas is man-made. It
is possible to increase capital, whereas
land is fixed. Therefore, it is very
important that we take good care of land
and other natural resources used in
farming.
7. Sale of Surplus Farm Products
Let us suppose that the farmers have
produced wheat on their lands using the
three factors of production. The wheat
is harvested and production is complete.
What do the farmers do with the wheat?
They retain a part of the wheat for the
family’s consumption and sell the
surplus wheat. Small farmers like
Savita and Gobind’s sons have little
surplus wheat because their total
production is small and from this a
substantial share is kept for their own
family needs. So it is the medium and
large farmers who supply wheat to the
market. In the Picture 1.1, you can see the
bullock cart streaming into the market
each carrying loads of wheat. The traders
at the market buy the wheat and sell it
further to shopkeepers in the towns and
cities.
Tejpal Singh, the large farmer, has a
surplus of 350 quintals of wheat from all
his lands! He sells the surplus wheat at
the Raiganj market and has good earnings.
What does Tejpal Singh do with his
earnings? Last year, Tejpal Singh had put
most of the money in his bank account.
Later he used the savings for lending to
farmers like Savita who were in need of a
loan. He also used the savings to arrange
for the working capital for farming in the
next season. This year Tejpal Singh plans
to use his earnings to buy another tractor.
Another tractor would increase his fixed
capital.
Like Tejpal Singh, other 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. Thus, they are able to arrange
for the capital for farming from their own
savings. Some farmers might also use the
savings to buy cattle, trucks, or to set up
shops. As we shall see, these constitute
the capital for non-farm activities.
Non-Farm Activities in Palampur
We have learnt about farming as the main
production activity in Palampur. We shall
now take a look at some of the non-farm
production activities. Only 25 per cent
of the people working in Palampur are
engaged in activities other than
agriculture.
1. Dairy — the other common
activity
Dairy is a common activity in many families
of Palampur. People feed their buffalos on
various kinds of grass and the jowar and
bajra that grows during the rainy season.
The milk is sold in Raiganj, the nearby large
village. Two traders from Shahpur town
have set up collection cum chilling centres
at Raiganj from where the milk is
transported to far away towns and cities.
2015-16

©Omegle king
a story of village palampur where people lives in very critical condition what's the critical condition let's find out || #story , #SAD , #story_of_life #Technology #technicalnation

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a story of village palampur where people lives in very critical condition what's the critical condition let's find out || #story , #SAD , #story_of_life #Technology #technicalnation #Knowledge

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