IX_Eco_Ch-1_Story of Village Palampur_Practice Set-3

M.L. Khanna DAV Public School

Sector-VI, Dwarka

Economics     Class IX

Chapter-1   Story of Village Palampur

Practice Set-3

Ques. Enlist and explain the different non-farm activities being conducted in village Palampur.

Ans. Though farming is the main production activity in Palampur, there are many non-farm production activities too which provide the villagers good source of livelihood. However, only 25 per cent of the people working in Palampur are engaged in non-farm activities which are as follows:-

1. Dairy:-

Dairy is a common activity in many families of Palampur. The milk drawn from buffalos 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 places.

2. Small-scale Manufacturing:-

Less than fifty people are engaged in manufacturing in Palampur. 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

3. Shop-keeping:-

People involved in trade are not many in Palampur. The shopkeepers buy various goods from wholesale markets in the cities and sell them in the village. Small general stores in the village sell a wide range of items like rice, wheat, sugar, tea etc. Also, few families sell eatables.

4. Transportation:-

There are variety of vehicles on the road connecting Palampur to Raiganj. Rickshawallas, tongawallas, jeep, tractor, truck drivers and people driving the traditional bullock cart and bogey are people in the transport services. They ferry people and goods and in return money.

Ques. What is the importance of surplus farm product? Explain in context of village Palampur.

Ans. The farmers retain a part of the crop grown (say, wheat) for the family’s consumption and sell the surplus wheat to earn money. Surplus farm product is important for a farmer to generate income for the livelihood as well as to invest in the farmland for better production. Small farmers have little surplus 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 surplus wheat to the market.

Ques. What are the different Capital needs of different farmers?

Ans. The modern farming methods require a great deal of capital. The different capital needs of different farmers are as under:

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.

2.                  The medium and large farmers have their own savings from farming. They are thus able to arrange for the capital needed on their own, no need to borrow generally.

Ques. Discuss in brief how land is distributed in the village Palampur.

Ans. Unfortunately, not all the people engaged in agriculture have sufficient land for cultivation. It can be understood by following points:

1.                  In Palampur, about one third of the 450 families are landless, i.e. 150 families, most of them dalits, have no land for cultivation.

2.                  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.

3.                  More than half the area of the village is covered by plots that are quite large in size. In Palampur, there are 60 families of medium and large farmers who cultivate more than 2 hectares of land.

4.                  A few of the large farmers have land extending over 10 hectares or more.

Ques. Who provides labour for cultivation on different farmlands?

Ans. 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. On the other hand, Medium and large farmers usually do not work to cultivate the farmland on their own. Rather they hire farm labourers to work on their fields.

Ques. What are the features of Green Revolution? Highlight some of its advantages and disadvantages along with limitations.

Ans. The Green Revolution refers to a set of research and the development of occurring in late 1960s that increased agricultural production and productivity in India.

The main features of Green Revolution in India are:

1. Introduction of new and high yielding variety of seeds.

2. Increased use of fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides in order to reduce agricultural loses.

3. Increased application of chemical fertilizers in order to enhance agricultural productivity.

4. Use of latest agricultural machinery like tractor, seed drills, threshers and harvester.

5. Availability of better irrigation facilities.

Merits of Green Revolution:

1. Higher Yield.                       2. Machines made ploughing harvesting easy.

3. Surplus food sold in market to earn more.

4. Pests and insects controlled by pesticides and insecticides.

5. Good irrigation enhanced production.

6. India no longer remained importer of food grains rather started exporting them.

Demerits of Green Revolution:

1. Loss of soil fertility with use of chemical fertilizers.

2. Use of tube wells reduced the ground-water table.

3. Chemical fertilizers polluted ground water.

4. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers kills the bacteria and micro organism present in soil and also makes soil alkaline and unfit for cultivation.

Limitations of Green Revolution:

1. The benefits of Green Revolution were mainly limited to only two crops, wheat and rice.

2. Only the large farmers had enough purchasing power to afford the new and expensive technology of farming, not the small farmers. It led to increasing gap between medium-large and small farmers.

3. The Green Revolution benefitted mainly a few states like Punjab, Haryana and western U.P, not all states in India.