THE STORY OF VILLAGE PALAMPUR

Class - IX, Economics

    Overview :   

    (i) Farming is the main activity, other activities are small scale manufacturing, dairy, transport etc.
    (ii) Transport is well developed. Bullock carts, tongas, bogeys to motor vehicles like motorcycles, jeeps, tractors and trucks.
    (iii) Society - has about 450 families. 80 upper caste families owns majority of land, their houses are pucca. The SCs comprise one-third of population have kuchha houses, made up of mud and straw.
    (iv) Infrastructure - have electricity connections used for powering tubewells, for small business. Two primary schools, a primary health center and one private dispensary.

    Organisation of Production

    Four requirements for production of goods and services. Every production is organised by combining land, labour, physical capital and human capital, these are known factors of production.
    (i) Land - natural resources such as water, forests and minerals
    (ii) Labour - workers who can do manual workers
    (iii) Physical capital - 

    (a) Tools, machines, buildings that can be used in production over many years.            

    (b) Raw materials and money in hand are called working capital, these are used up in production.
    (iv) Human capital - knowledge and enterprise to put together land, labour and physical capital and produce an output.

    Farming in Palampur :

    Land is 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. Now there is no land left to be brought under cultivation.

    Is there a way one can grow more from the same land ?
    Multiple Cropping - In rainy season farmers grow jowar and bajra. Cultivation of potato between October and December, in winter season fields are sown with wheat. A part of the land is also devoted to sugarcane.
    Promotion of Irrigation - Electric run tubewells could irrigate much larger areas of land more effectively, which helps in growing three crops in a year in Palampur.
    Green Revolution (modern farming methods and use of HYV seeds)

    Will the land sustain ?

    Modern farming methods have overused the natural resource base (loss of soil fertility due to increased use of chemical fertilizers, reduction of water-table below the ground)

    Distribution of land between the farmers of Palampur ?

    (i) About one third of the 450 families are landless, i.e. 150 families, most of them Dalits, have no land for cultivation.
    (ii) 240 families cultivate small plots of land less than 2 hectares in size.
    (iii) About 60 families of medium and large farmers cultivate more than 2 hectares of land. A few of the large farmers have land extending over 10 hectares or more.

    Who will provide the labour ?

    Farm labourers come either from landless families or families cultivating small plots of land. They are paid wages by the farmer in cash or in kind. Wages very widely from region to region, from crop to crop, from one farm activity to another.
    The minimum wages for a farm labourer set by the government is Rs 60 per day, but labours get only Rs 35 - 40. This is due to heavy competition for work among the farm labourers in Palampur, so people agree to work for lower wages.

    The capital needed in Farming

    (i) Small farmers borrow capital from large farmers or the village moneylenders or the traders, the rate of interests is very high, and other undue conditions are also to be fulfilled.
    (ii) Medium and large farmers have their own savings from farming. They are thus able to arrange for the capital needed.

    Sale of Surplus Farm Products

    Small farmers have little surplus because their total production is small and from this a substantial share is kept for their own family needs. Large farmers have surplus production which they sell in the market. They put the money in their banks. They use the savings for lending to small farmers, to arrange for the working capital for farming in the next season.

    Non-Farm Activities in Palampur :

    1. Dairy - the other common activity        2. Small-scale manufacturing in Palampur
    3. Shopkeepers of Palampur                   4. Transport : a fast developing sector