The Story Of Village

Palampur
The purpose of the story is to
introduce some basic
concepts relating to
production through a story
of village called Palampur.
Introduction
Palampur is a hypothetical village,
where farming is the main activity.

Well-connected with neighbouring

villages & towns. It is 3 km away from
Raiganj — a big village
 Connectivity in Palampur

❖ The village has an all weathered road

which connects it with nearby places.

❖ Bullock carts, tangas, jeeps, motorcycles,

tractors & trucks are type of visible
transport facility available in Palampur.
 There are 450 families belonging to
several different castes live in the village

80 Upper Caste Families

● Own majority of land

● Live in big houses
The SCs (dalits) comprise
made up of bricks
1/3rd of the population.
with cement
plastering
● Live in corner of the
village in smaller
houses made up of
mud & straw
● Landless mostly.
 Public Facilities in Palampur

❖ Most of the houses have electric

connections.

❖ The village has two primary schools & one

high school

❖ There is a primary health centre run by

the government and one private
dispensary.

Thus, we can say that Palampur has fairly

well-developed system of roads, transport,
electricity, irrigation, schools and health
centre.
 Non-farming Activities in Palampur

Small-scale Transport
Manufacturing

Shop-keeping Milk Production

(Dairy)

These production activities are carried out

on a limited scale because they require
money, natural resources, human efforts, etc.
Organisation of Production
 Production
It is the organised activity of
transforming resources into finished
products.

Aim of Production
Producing Goods and Services that we
want
 Factors responsible for production

Land Labour Physical Human

Capital Capital

Every Production is organised by combining

all these factors.
 Land
1
Land, and other natural resources such as
water, forests, minerals.

Labour
2
People who will do the work.
Production activities requires both skilled
and unskilled labourers.
 Physical Capital
3
Physical capital it means variety of inputs
Items
required at under Physical
every stage Capital
during are
production.
divided among
It has following two categories :-
2 types:

Fixed Capital : includes tools, machines,

buildings, can be used in production
over many years.
Ex : Plough, generator, computer, etc.

Working Capital : includes raw

material, money, etc.
 Fixed Capital Working Capital

Serves for long Serves for short

term term

Remains in the You need to buy it

business almost for every batch of
permanently production.

Eg. Land, Machines Eg. Money, Raw

material
 Knowledge/Human Capital
4
Knowledge is required 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.

These days it is known as human capital.

Farming in Palampur
1 Land is Fixed
Farming is the main production
activity in palampur

75% of its population practices

agriculture

The well-being of these people

is closely related to Production
of the farms

They could be farmers or farm

labourers.
 Constraint

Since 1960 in Palampur, there has been no

expansion in land area under cultivation.

Step taken by
Villagers

Some of the Wastelands in the village had

been converted to cultivable land.
2 Is there a way one can grow
more from the same land?
 In the kind of crops grown & facilities
available, Palampur would resemble a village
of the western part of the state of Uttar
Pradesh.

Kharif Season

During rainy season

It is followed by
farmers grow Jowar
Cultivation of potato
and Bajra.
between October and
These plants are used
December
as fodder for Cattle
 Rabi Season

In winters, Fields are sown with wheat.

Out of which farmers keep enough wheat

for family consumption and sell the Surplus
wheat at the Market at Raiganj.

Sugarcane is also harvested once a year.

Later, in its raw form or as Jaggery it is sold

to traders in nearby town Shahpur.
 Do You Know ?

The standard unit of measuring land is

hectare(ha), though in the villages you
may find land area being discussed in
local units such as bigha, guintha, etc.
Reasons that enabled the growth of
three different crops in a year

Reasons

Well-developed Availability
Irrigation of
System Electricity
Evolution of Irrigation System in Palampur

Earlier, Persian wheels were, used by

farmers to draw water from the wells and
irrigate small fields.

Now, they use Electric-run tubewells as they

could irrigate land more effectively.
 Development of Tubewells

The first few tubewells

were installed by the
government

As a result, by Later, farmers

mid-1970s the entire started setting up
cultivated area of 200 private tubewells
ha. was irrigated.
 Do You
Know ?

Of the total cultivable area in the country a

little less than 40% is irrigated even today.

In the remaining areas, farming is largely

dependent on rainfall.
 Multiple Cropping

2. Growing
more than one
crop on a piece
of land during
the year.

3. All farmers in
1. Most
Palampur grow
common way of
at least two
increasing
main crops.
production on
Many are
a given piece of
growing potato
land.
as a third crop.
Multiple
Cropping
❖ One way of increasing production
from the same land is by Multiple
Cropping. It is a natural way.

The other way is to use Modern Farming

Methods for higher yield.

It requires more inputs such as:

❏ HYV Seeds
❏ Pesticides, Insecticides, Fertilizers
❏ Poper Irrigation , etc.
 Traditional Farming Practices

❖ Till the mid- 1960s, the seeds used in

cultivation were traditional ones with
relatively low yields.

❖ Traditional seeds needed less irrigation.

❖ Farmers used cow-dung and other

natural manure as fertilizers.

All these were readily available with the

farmers who did not have to buy them.
 Green Revolution
Introduced cultivation of wheat and
rice using high yielding varieties
(HYVs) of seeds.

HYV seeds produces much greater

amounts of grain on a single plant

Needs plenty of water, chemical

fertilizers & pesticides to produce
best results.
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 tube

wells for irrigation, and used HYV seeds,
chemical fertilizers and Pesticides

Some of them bought farm machinery like

tractors and threshers, which made
ploughing and harvesting faster. They were
rewarded with high yields of wheat..

They were rewarded with high yields of wheat.

 In Palampur, the yield of
wheat grown from the
traditional varieties was 1300
kg/ha.
With HYV seeds, the yield
went upto 3200 kg/ha.

There was a large increase in production.

Therefore, farmers have greater amounts of
surplus (extra production) to sell in the
market now.
3 Will the land Sustain?
Cons of Modern Farming Methods

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
fertilisers.

Continuous use of groundwater for

tubewell irrigation has reduced the
water-table below the ground.
Chemical fertilizers provide minerals which
dissolve in water and are immediately
available to plants.

Bad Impacts

❏ The minerals may not be retained in

the soil for long. These may escape
from soil and pollute groundwater.

❏ They also kills the bacteria and other

microorganisms in the soil.

❏ The continuous use of chemical

fertilizers in Punjab has led to
degradation of soil health.
Environmental resources such as Soil fertility
& 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.
4 How is land distributed between
the Farmers in Palampur?
 Land distribution in Palampur

Land more than 2 hectares Landless

60 families One-third (150

families), most of
them were Dalits

Land less than 2 hectares

240 families

Cultivation of such plot doesn't bring

adequate income. They need to look for
additional occupation.
 Unfortunately, not all the people
engaged in agriculture have sufficient
land for cultivation.
5 Who will provide the labour?
After land, labour is the next necessary
factor for production

Farming requires a great deal of hard

work

Small farmers While Medium and

cultivate their field Large farmers hire
with their families. farm labourers to
work on their field.
Thus, they provide
the labour
required for
farming themselves
 Farm labourers

Farm labourers come either from

landless families or families cultivating
small plots of land.

❖ Farm labourers don't have right over the

crops grown on land.

❖ Wages : Wages can be in Cash or Crop.

Wages very widely from region to

region, crop to crop, one farm
activity to another.
❖ Variation in Duration of Employment :

Farm labourers might be employed on a

daily basis, or for one particular farm
activity (harvesting) or for the whole year.
 Do You Know ?

The minimum wages for a farm labourer

set by the government is Rs.300
(March,2017) per day.

Problem:

There is a heavy competition for work

among farm labourers, so people agree
to work for lower wages.
6 The Capital needed in Farming
 Modern farming methods require a
great deal of capital, that's why now the
farmers need more money.

Small Farmers Medium & large

Farmers

Borrow money from They have their

moneylenders own savings from
farming.
The rate of interest
on such loans is very Thus they are able
high, put to great to arrange for the
distress to repay the capital needed.
loan.
7 Sale of Surplus Farm Products
 Let us suppose that the farmers have
produced wheat on their land.
The wheat is harvested and production
is complete. What do the farmers do
with the wheat now?

Farmers retain a part of the wheat for the

family’s consumption and sell the surplus
wheat.
 Small Farmers Medium & large
Farmers

Their total It is the medium &

production is small large Farmers who
& from this a supply wheat to the
substantial share is market.
kept for their family
needs.
So, they have no
surplus left.

The traders at market buy the wheat

and sell it further to shopkeepers in the
towns and cities.
 Benefits of Earning
(Medium & Large Farmers)

❖ Mostly money is saved in the bank

account
given as credit to small farmer.

❖ Able to arrange capital : A part of

earning is kept for buying
capital for next session.

❖ Some farmers might also use the savings

to buy cattle, trucks or set up shop.
Non-Farm Activities
in Palampur
Dairy
 Common
activity in
many families
of Palampur

From there, it People feed

is further their buffalos
transported to on various
other towns kinds of grass
and cities. & the Jowar
and Bajra.

The milk is sold

in Raiganj at
milk centres
Small- Scale manufacturing
 Less than 50 people are engaged in
manufacturing in Palampur.

Manufacturing in Palampur involves very

simple production method and are done on a
small scale.

Most of the work is carried out at home with

the help of Family Labour.

Labourers are hired rarely.

The Shopkeepers of Palampur
 People
involved in
trade are not
many.

Wide range of The traders buy

items such as various goods
rice, wheat, from wholesale
sugar, soap, markets in the
toothpaste, cities and sell
eatables are them in the
village.
available in
stores.
There are small
general stores
in the
palampur
Transport : a fast developing
sector
 Variety of vehicles on the road connects
Palampur to Raiganj

Rickshawallahs, tongawallahs, jeep, tractor,

truck drivers are involved in transport
services.

They ferry people and goods from one place

to another, and in return get paid for it.

The no. of people involved in transport has

grown over the last several years.