Q1) Describe the
infrastructure development of village Palampur.
Ans:
The infrastructure of
village Palampur is as follow:
i) Palampur is
well-connected with neighbouring villages and towns. Raiganj, a big village, is
3 Kms away frpm Palampur.
ii) An all-weather road
connects the village to Raiganj and further on to the nearest small town of
Shahpur.
iii) Many kinds of transport
are visible on this road starting from bullock carts, tongas, bogeys ( wooden
cart drawn by buffalos) loaded with jiggery (gur) and other commodities to
motor vehicles like motorcycles, jeeps, tractors and trucks.
iv) the houses of the upper
classes, some of them quite large, are made of brick with cement plastering.
The SCs ( Dalit) live in one corner of the village and in much smaller houses,
some of which are made of mud and straw.
v) Most of the houses have electric
connections. Electricity powers all the tube-wells in the fields and is used in
various types of small business.
vi) 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.
Q2) How did he
spread of electricity help farmers in Palampur.
Ans:
Electricity powers all the
tube-wells in the fields and is used in various types of small business. It is
also used in domestic purposes like lighting.
Q3) What are farm
and non-farm activities? Give examples.
Ans:
i) In village across India,
farming is the main production activity. It includes cultivation of rice,
wheat, etc.
ii) The other production
activities, referred to as non-farm activities include small manufacturing,
transport, shop-keeping, etc.
Q4) Define the
term Capital?
Ans:
The part of wealth or money
which is used for further production is termed as capital. It is an important
factor of production.
Q5) What are the
four requirements for the production of goods and services? (what are the
factors of production?)
Ans:
The aim of production is to
produce the goods and services that we want. There are four requirements for
production of goods and services.
i) Land and other natural
resources such as water, forests and minerals.
ii) labour, i.e. people who
will do the work. Each worker is providing the labour necessary for production.
iii) physical capital, i.e.
the variety of input required at every stage during production. E.g. tools,
machines, buildings, etc.
iv) the knowledge and enterprise
that is required 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 ( or organization
).
Q6) What are the
items that come under physical capital ( distinguish between fixed and working
capital )
Ans:
i) 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.
ii) 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 machines, tools and buildings, these are used up in
production.
Q7) describe the
multiple cropping pattern of the village Palampur.
Ans:
i) During the rainy season ( Kharif ) farmers grow jowar and bajra. Theses
plants are used as cattle feed.
ii) it is followed by cultivation of potato between October and
December.
iii) 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.
iv) A part of the land area is also devoted to sugarcane which is
harvested once every year. Sugarcane, in its raw for, or as jiggery, is sold to
trade in Shahpur.
Q8) What is meant
by multiple cropping?
Ans:
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 at least two main crops,
Jowars & Bajra and wheat. Many are growing potato as the third crop in the
past fifteen to twenty years.
Q9) What are the
different ways of increasing production on the same piece of land?
Ans:
i) One way of increasing production from the same land is by multiple
cropping. To grow more than one crop on a piece of land during the year is
known as multiple cropping.
ii) The other way is to use modern farming methods for higher
yield. Modern machineries, high yielding variety seeds, better irrigation,
fertilizers and chemicals etc. are used in this method.
Q10) What are the
disadvantages of Green Revolution?
Ans:
i) Green Revolution is associated with the loss of soil fertility due to
increased use of chemical fertilizers.
ii) Continuous use of groundwater for tube well irrigation has reduced
the water-table below the ground.
iii) 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.
Q11) What are the disadvantages
in using chemical fertilizers?
Ans:
i) Chemical fertilizers
provide minerals which dissolve in water and are immediately available to
plants. But these may not be retained in the soil for long. They may escape
from the soil and pollute groundwater, river and lakes. Chemical fertilizers
can also kill bacteria and other micro-organisms in the soil. This means some
time after their use, the soil will be less fertile than before.
ii) the consumption of
chemical fertilizers in Punjab is highest in the country. The continuous use of
chemical fertilizers has led to degradation of soil health. Punjab farmers are
now forced to use more and more chemical fertilizers and other inputs to
achieve the same production level. This means cost of cultivation is rising
very fast.
Q12) How is the
land distributed among the farmers in Palampur?
Ans:
i) In Palampur, about one
third of the 450 families are landless, i.e. 150 families, most of them are
Dalits and have no land for cultivation.
ii) Of the remaining
families who own land, 240 families cultivate small plots of land less than 2
hectares in size. Cultivation of such plots doesn’t bring adequate income to
the farmer family.
iii) Large number of small
plots scattered around the village are cultivated by the small farmers. On the
other hand , more than half the area of the village is covered by plots that
are quite large in size.
iv) In Palampur, there are
60 families of medium and large farmers who cultivate more than 2 hectares of
land. A few of the large farmers have land extending over 10 hectares or more.
Q13) Who provide labour for farming activities
in Palampur?
Ans:
i) Small farmers along with
their families cultivate their own fields. Thus, they provide the labour
required for farming themselves.
ii) Medium and large farmers
hire farm labours to work on their fields. Farm labourers come either from
landless families or families cultivating small plots of land.
Q14) How are farm
labours different from farmers?
Ans:
i) Unlike farmers, farm
labourers do not have a right over the crops grown on the land, instead they
are paid wages by the farmers for whom they work.
ii) Wages can be in cash or
in kind e.g. crop. Sometimes labourers get meals too. Since farmers work for themselves
wages are not given.
iii) Wages vary widely from
region to region, from crop to crop, from one farm activity to another ( like
sowing and harvesting ).
iv) there is also a wide
variation in the duration of employment. A farm labourer might be employed on a
daily basis, or for one particular farm activity like harvesting, or for the
whole year. A farmer works on his land according to the requirement without
considering day and time.
v) there is heavy
competition for work among the farm labourers in Palampur, so people agree to
work for lower wages.
Q15) How do the
medium and large farmers obtain capital for farming? How is it different from
the small farmers?
Ans:
i) 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.
ii) In contrast to the small
farmers, the medium and large farmers have their own savings from farming. They
save money by the sale of surplus farm products. They are thus able to arrange
for the capital needed.
Q16) How does the
sale of surplus farm products help farmers?
Ans:
i) It helps farmers to
arrange working capital for the next season.
ii) It helps them to buy
fixed capital like tools and implements.
iii) they can deposit the
money in the bank or lend to the needy
people who provide them interest.
Q17) What are the
non-farm activities in Palampur? Explain.
Ans:
i) Dairy: 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 grow during the rainy season. The milk is sold in
Raiganj, the nearby large village.
ii) small scale
manufacturing: unlike the manufacturing that takes place in the big factories
in the towns and cities, manufacturing in Palampur involves very simple
production methods and are done on a small scale. They are carried out mostly
at home or in the fields with the help of family labour. Rarely are labourers
hired.
iii) shop-keeping: people
involved in trade (exchange of goods) are not many in Palampur. The traders of
Palampur are shopkeepers who buy various goods from wholesale markets in the
cities and sell them in the village.
iv) transport: the is
variety of vehicles on the road connecting Palampur to Raiganj. Rickshawallahs,
tongawallahs, jeep, tractor, truck drivers and people driving the traditional
bullock cart and bogey are people in the transport services. They ferry people
and goods from one place to another, and in return get paid for it. The number
of people involved in transport has grown over the last several years.
Q18) What can be done
so that ore non-farm production activities can be started in villages?
Ans:
i) It is important that loan
be available at low rate of interest so that even people without saving can
start some non-farm activity.
ii) 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, jiggery, wheat, etc.
iii) 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 production in the
village would increase in the coming years.
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