Chapter 1 The Story of Village Palampur eng

Chapter 1 The Story of Village Palampur

Question 1.
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)
Irrigated	Unirrigated
		26 hectares

(d) Facilities:

Education
Medical
Market
Electricity Supply
Communication
Nearest Town

Answer:
(a) Location: 3 kms away from Raiganj (a big village) and further on to the nearest small town of Shahpur.
(b) Total area of the village: 226 hectares
(c)

Cultivated Land	Land not available for cultivation (Area covering dwellings, roads, ponds, grazing ground)
Irrigated	Unirrigated
200 hectares	NIL	26 hectares

(d) Facilities:

Education	Two primary schools and one high school
Medical	One government primary health centre and one private dispensary
Market	Some general stores and shops selling eatables
Electricity Supply	Most of the houses have electricity
Communication	Posts, telephone and television
Nearest Town	Shahpur

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Question 2.
Modern farming methods require more inputs which are manufactured in industry. Do you agree?
Answer:
Yes, I agree that modern farming methods require more inputs than traditional farming. It requires inputs like chemical fertilizers, pesticides, pump sets, farm machinery, electricity, high yielding varieties of seeds, and water supply. Most of these outputs are manufactured in industries. Similarly, water supply is provided by canals and tanks.

Question 3.
How did the spread of electricity help farmers of Palampur?
Answer:
Electricity came early to Palampur. Its major impact was to transform the system of irrigation. In Palampur, electricity powers all the tube wells in the fields and is used in various types of small businesses. People say that the electric-run tubewells could irrigate much more than the ordinary ones.

Question 4.
Is it important to increase the area under irrigation? Why?
Answer:
Yes, it is important to increase the area under irrigation because if a country has to increase its production it has to increase the irrigational area.

Question 5.
Construct a table on the distribution of land among the 450 families of Palampur.
Answer:
Distribution of land among 450 families of Palampur is as follows:

Land (in hectares)	No. of families
0	150
Less than 2	240
More than 2	60
Total	450

Question 6.
Why are the wages for farm labourers in Palampur less than minimum wages?
Answer:
The wages for farm labourers in Palampur are less than the minimum wages because:

1. There is heavy competition for work among the farmers.
2. Employment is less and farmers are more and, therefore, farmers have to be content with what they are earning.
3. Land is owned by landlords who desire to earn more and more profit by giving minimum wages.
4. The farmers are illiterate and unaware of the amount of minimum wages set by the government.

Question 7.
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:
To be attempted by the students themselves.

Question 8.
What are the different ways of increasing production on the same piece of land? Use examples to explain.
Answer:
The land area under cultivation is practically fixed so in order to increase the production from a same piece of land, we can use the following methods:

Multiple cropping. It is the most common way of increasing production on a given piece of land. It means when two or more crops are grown on the same piece of land during a year, i.e., Indian farmers should grow at least two main crops in a year. In India, some farmers are growing third crop also over the past 20 years such as in Palampur jowar and bajra are grown and potato is the third crop.

Modern farming methods. Production on the same piece of land can also be increased by adopting modern farming methods. The Green Revolution in India is a remarkable example of it. Under modern farming, more cultivable area should be brought under high yielding varieties of seeds and irrigation. The use of simple wooden plough must be replaced by tractors and with increased use of farm machinery such as tractors, threshers and harvesters, make cultivation faster and also help in increasing yield per hectare.

Question 9.
Describe the work of a farmer with 1 hectare of land.
Answer:
A farmer who works on 1 hectare of land is called a small farmer. He carries out the following activities:

1. Ploughs the field by bullocks or tractors
2. Sows the seeds by simply sprinkling by hands
3. Waters the field with the help of a Persian wheel
4. Sprays the insecticides by manual pumps
5. Cuts the crops by hand-operated tools

Question 10.
How do the medium and large farmers obtain capital for farming? How is it different from the small farmers?
Answer:
All farmers require capital during production. They require fixed as well as working capital. The medium and large farmers have their own savings from farming. They are able to arrange for their own capital. They sell their surplus in the market. A part of this is saved and the rest is used to buy machinery and other raw materials or lend it to the small farmers to make more profit.

Whereas small farmers have to borrow money to arrange for capital. They borrow from large farmers, moneylenders and traders who supply them various inputs for cultivation. They are charged very high rate of interest by these moneylenders and traders or even the large farmers.

Question 11.
On what terms did Savita get a loan from Tejpal 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 of loan of Savita taken from Tejpal Singh are:

1.  She took loan of ₹ 3.000 at an interest rate of 24 percent.
2. She would have to repay the loan in four months.
3. She also has to work on Tejpal’s field as a farm labourer during the harvesting season at ₹ 35 per day.

The bank could have provided her loan at a low rate of interest. In addition, she would have devoted more time to her own field of 1 hectare, instead of working as a farm labourer for Tejpal Singh.

Question 12.
Talk to some old residents of your region and write a short report on the changes in irrigation and changes in production methods during the last 30 years.
Answer:
To be attempted by the students themselves.

Question 13.
What are the non-farm production activities taking place in your region? Make a shortlist.
Answer:
To be attempted by the students themselves.

Question 14.
What can be done so that more non-farm activities can be started in villages?
Answer:
At present, there are not so many farm activities in the villages. Out of every 100 workers in rural areas of India, only 24 workers are engaged in non-farm activities.
The steps that can be taken are:

1. Supply of electricity in villages needs to be improved. This will encourage the establishment of small-scale industries.
2. More villages should be connected to the towns and cities, through all-weather road transport
   and telephonic systems.
3. The villages should have markets where goods and services produced can be sold such as in Palampur, neighbouring towns and cities provide markets for milk, jaggery, and wheat.