Rural development

NOTES PREPARED BY JOSEPH ANDREWS , BIRLA PUBLIC SCHOOL,

DOHA-QATAR

Rural development refers to overall development of the village economy which

includes
1. Development of human resources which includes education and health
2. Development of rural infrastructure for eg electricity, irrigation, credit
system, agricultural marketing, development of roads etc
3. Land reforms
4. Poverty alleviation programs to eliminate poverty
5. Development of the productive resources of each area of the village.
Rural development is a process where by the standard of living of rural people
especially rural poor increases continuously.

Govt has launched a very important plan for the rural development. The main
purpose of the plan is to develop rural infrastructure. The name of this plan is
BHARATH NIRMAN YOJANA.

Aim: for building infrastructure and basic amenities in rural areas. This program
has six components
1. Rural housing
2. Irrigation
3. Drinking water
4. Electrification
5. Roads
6. Rural telecommunication
Credit and Marketing in Rural areas
Availability of credit and marketing facilities are very important in agriculture.
Agriculture credit plays a very important role to the agro-socio economic
development of the country. It is equally important at both individual or micro
level as well as aggregate or macro level.

Rural Credit

• The word credit literally means faith.

 Credit is an arrangement by which the lender gives money or goods to a

borrower in return for a promise of repayment in future.

 The farmers need credit for the development of agriculture especially in rural
areas. It is called rural or agriculture credit.
 Majority of farmers in India are small and marginal farmers. Their income is
low and they are in debt.
 In agriculture there is a time gap between owing and harvesting. This forces
the farmer to borrow money not only for farming expenses but also for their
consumption. Therefore farmers welfare depends to a large extent on timely
and low cost credit.
Classification of Rural Credit/Sources of Rural Credit

PRODUCTIVE CREDIT:
1.Finance needed by the farmers to carry on the productive activity is known as
productive credit.
2.For eg finance taken to purchase seeds,fertilizers,pesticides etc
3,.It also includes loan taken to finance expenditure on making permanent
improvement on land for eg digging of wells,fencing the land etc
UNPRODUCTIVE CREDIT:
1.Credit required by the farmers to finance expenditures other than production
activities is known as unproductive credit.
2. It includes finance taken to meet various types of consumption expenditure for
social and religious purposes like marriage, funerals festive occasion etc
3. Credit taken for unproductive purposes do not contribute to production and
cannot easily paid back.

SHORT TERM CREDIT

 Needed for a period of 15 months
 It is related to current activities of production
  Repaid out of current income of the farmers.
MEDIUM TERM CREDIT
 15 months to 5 years.
 Needed to acquire fixed farm assets
 Needed for meeting various unproductive expenditure that is
marriages and other social religious functions .
LONG TERM CREDIT
 5 yrs to 20 yrs
 For long term improvements
 Expenditure on purchase of land, expensive machines etc…

At the time of independence, money lenders and traders exploited small and
marginal farmers and landless laborers by lending and charging a high rate of
interest and by manipulating the accounts to them in a debt trap. The credit
situation has hanged the three major govt initiatives. They were
1. Nationalization of 14 major commercial bank sin 1969
2. Setting up of NABARD in 1982 (apex body to coordinate the activities of all
institutions involved in the rural financing system)
3. Expanding the cooperative credit system ie a set of multi agency institutions
namely

a) Commercial bank
b) Regional Rural bank
c) Cooperative and land development bank
They are expected to lend adequate credit at cheaper rate of interest.
SOURCES OF RURAL CREDIT
SOURCES OF RURAL CREDIT
Institutional sources non institutional

Formal sector informal sector

1) Cooperative credit society 1) money lenders
2) Land development bank 2) landlords
3) NABARD 3) traders and commission
agents
4) RRB 4) relatives
5) Commercial banks
6) SHG
BANKING SYSTEM- A CRICTICAL EVALUTION
ROLE OF RURAL BANKING SYSTEM IN THE PROCESS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN
INDIA
1. Rapid expansion of rural banking system had a positive effect on rural farm
and non-farm activities, income, employment especially after green
revolution.
2. Its main objective is to provide a better service and finance at low rate of
interest for meeting their production needs to the small, medium and
marginal farmers, skilled craftsmen and small entrepreneurs in rural areas
3. Credit availability played an important role in the success of green
revolution. Now we achieved food security which is reflected in the abundant
buffer stock of food grains.
Drawbacks
Rural credit system is not functioning effectively.
 Except commercial banks and formal institutions have failed to develop a
culture of deposit mobilization lending to worthwhile borrowers and
effective loan recovery.

  Failed to
develop
the habit
of saving
and

 Agricultural loan default rate have been chronically high. Farmers are
deliberately refusing to pay back loans.
Thus expansion and promotion of rural banking system have taken a back
seat after reforms.
 Role of SHG (Micro Credit) in marketing credit
requirements of the poor

Provision of micro credit to SHG is a recent phenomenon .

Recently SHG have emerged to fill the gap in the formal credit system .
The formal credit delivery mechanism was not only inadequate but also not
being fully integrated into overall rural social community development .
Some kind of collateral is also required as result of vast proportion of poor
rural household were automatically out of the credit network.
Merits
1. SHG promote saving habit in small proportion by a minimum contribution
from
each member.
2. From the pooled money credit is given to needy members at a reasonable
rate of
interest . Such credit provision generally referred to as ​Micro Credit
Programme.
3. SHG help in the empowerment of women.
Demerits
1. Borrowings are mainly confined to consumption purpose rather than
productive
investment.
 NOTE 1: TANWA

 Tamil Nadu Women in Agriculture (TANWA) is a project in Tamil Nadu

to train women in latest agricultural techniques.
 It induces women to actively participate in raising agricultural
productivity and family income .
 At a farm Women’s group in Tiruchirappalli, run by Anthoniammal,
trained women are successfully making and selling vermicompost and
are earning money from this venture.
 Many other Farm Women’s groups are creating savings in their group
by functioning like mini banks through a micro credit system.
 With the accumulated savings, they promote small-scale household
activities like mushroom cultivation, soap manufacture, doll making or
other income generating activities.

NOTE 2: KUDUMBASHREE
 Kudumbashree is a women oriented community-based poverty reduction
programme being implemented in Kerala.
 In 1995, a thrift and credit society was started as a small savings bank for
poor women with the objective to encourage savings.
 The thrift and credit society mobilized Rs. 1 crore as thrift claimed as the
largest informal banks in Asia In terms of participation and savings mobilized.

Agricultural Marketing
​

Agricultural marketing is a process that involves

1) Assembling
2) Storage
3) Processing
4) Transportation
5) Packaging
6) Grading
7) Distribution of different agricultural commodities across the country.
 (OR)
Agricultural marketing means all those activities by which agricultural production
reaches the consumers form the farmer field. Consumers get these goods by
paying fixed price . Under marketing many activities fall from beginning to an end.
1) Collection
2) Grading
3) To keep yield in warehouse for protection
4) Transportation and distribution of agricultural commodities across
countries
5)To arrange finance for all those activities.

Obstacles that hinder mechanism of marketing

1. Distress sale
Most of the farmers are poor and indebted . They cannot wait to get higher price .
They want to clear their debts . So they are compelled to sell their surplus produce
to rural money lenders or traders at low rate .
They were forced to sell at low price due to lack is required information on price
prevailing in market .
2. Lack of storage facilities
Farmers do not have proper storage facility to store their produce to sell later at a
better price. Farmers are compelled to sell most of their output as soon as it gets
ready after the harvest . Thus there is a glut in the market after that cropping
 season which depresses the sale price and result in the low income . Every year 15-
30% of the agricultural produce are damaged either by rats or rains due to the
absence of proper storage facilities .
3. Manipulation by big traders
Prior to Independence , the farmers suffered from faulty weighing and
manipulation of accounts while selling their produce to traders .

Measures taken by Government to improve Agricultural Marketing

After Independence the Government of India adopted the following measures to
improve the system of agricultural marketing
1. To set up regulated markets -
A very important step that has been undertaken by the government in the
organization of regulated market. This market have been organized to protect the
farmers from the malpractices in market .The management of such market is done
by a market committee which has
a) Representation of State Governments
1) local bodies
2) the traders
3) the consumers and
4) the farmers
The committee is appointed by the government for a specific period of time. The
main objectives are:
1) To eliminate illegal and unhealthy marketing practices
2) These markets helps the farmers to secure reasonable price
3) To lessen marketing charges
4) To ensure fare prices to both producers and consumers
DRAWBACKS:
1) There is still need to develop about 27000 rural periodic markets as regulated
market places to realise the full potential of rural markets.

2) Provision for infrastructure facilities:

The govt is making the best effort to improve infrastructural facilities like
a)roads
 b) warehouses
c)godowns
d) cold storage and
e) processing units
to prevent forced sale by the farmers after the harvesting crops , our govt has set up
warehousing facilities in towns and villages.
For eg :central warehousing corporation was setup in 1957 to construct warehouse
for the storage of agricultural produce.

Drawback
The current infrastructure facilities are quite inadequate to meet the growing
demand and need to be improved.

3)CO OPERATIVE MARKETING SOCIETY

The aim of cooperative marketing is to realise fare prices for farmers produce.
Under this, marketing societies are formed by farmers to sell the output collectively
and to take advantage of collective bargaining in order to obtain better price
For eg : AMUL milk corporative in Gujarat have been very successful in transforming
the social and economic condition of Gujarat and some other parts of the country.
These society collect the produce from their members ,sell it in regulated markets
and distribute the net proceeds among their members
In 1964 National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation Of Jndia (NAFED) was
setup for the coordination among cooperative society.
Benefits
1) Free from intermediaries
2) Reasonable price of produce
3) Loans on cheap rate of interest
4) Storage facilities
5) Free from exploitation
Drawbacks
Cooperative have received a set back during the recent past because of:
1)inadequate coverage of farmer members
2)lack of appropriate link between marketing and processing cooperatives
3)inefficient financial management

4)POLICY INSTRUMENT
In order to protect the farmers , the government has initiated the following policies :

1) MSP(Minimum support price)

To safeguard the interest of the farmers , government fixes for minimum support
price of 24agricultural products like wheat, rice, maize, cotton, sugarcane etc. Such a
price maybe regarded as an offer price, at which the government is willing to buy any
amount of grains from the farmers .
2) Maintenance of Buffer stock
The FCI purchases wheat and rice at reasonable price to maintain buffer stock .
Buffer stock is created from surplus production and is used during shortage . It helps
to ensureregularity in supply and stability in prices.

PDS
PDS in our country operates through a network of ration shops at fair price shops .
Fair prices shops offer essential commodities like wheat , rice, kerosene, etc. at a
price below the market price for the weaker sections of the society .
These instruments are aimed at protecting the
A) Income of the farmers and
B) Providing food grains at subsidised rate to the poor
DRAWBACKS
1. Agricultural markets are still dominated by the private traders like
1) Money lenders
2) Rural political leaders
3) Big merchant and
4) Rich farmers

2. The quantity of agricultural products is handled by

a. Government Agencies
b. Consumer Co-operatives
Consumed by only 10% while the rest is handled by the private sector.

EMERGENCE OF ALTERNATIVE MARKETING CHANNELS

1. Origin of farmers’ market –

Both farmers and consumers will get benefit if the middlemen are removed. In
the absence of middlemen, farmers can directly sell their produce to the
consumers. Some examples of these channels are
 APNI
MANDI
farmers
market
in

2) Alliance with National and Multinational companies

 Several national and multinational fast food chains are increasingly entering
into contracts or alliances with farmers.
They encourage the farmers to cultivate the farm products i.e., vegetables,
fruits of the desired quantity. These companies seek all other inputs. These
companies purchase produce at predetermined prices.

Benefits of such arrangements

Such arrangements will help in reducing the price risks of farmers at expand the
market for farm products.

DIVERSIFICATION INTO PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES

Diversification means increasing the produce of horticulture and during

development along with the production of food grains and commercial crops.
It includes two aspects
1 Change in the cropping pattern.
2 Shift of work force from agricultural to other allied activities and non-agricultural
sector.

AGRUICULTURAL DIVERSIFICATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS

1 The need for diversification arises from the fact that there is greater risk in
depending exclusively on farming for livelihood.
2 Not only have to reduce the risk from agricultural sector but also to provide
productive sustainable livelihood optioned to rural people.
3 Much of the agricultural employment activities are concentrated in the Kharif
season.

But during the rabi season in areas there are inadequate irrigation facilities, it
becomes difficult to find gainful employment.
In the above circumstances, expansion into other sectors is essential to
provide supplementary gainful employment and in realising higher level of
income for rural people to overcome poverty.

NON FARM AREAS

Non-farm jobs related to agriculture have great employment potential.

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
It is the most important non-farm area of employment in India.
It is also called life stock farming.
In India farming community uses the mixed crop-livestock farming system-cattle,
goats, duct, goose etc. are widely held species.
India owns one of the largest livestock populations.
Livestock production provides
a. Stability in income
b. Food security
c. Transport
d. Food and nutrition for the family without disrupting other food producing
activities.

Livestock farming is a source of alternative livelihood to 70mllion rural people

including small and marginal farmers, agricultural laborer’s and other rural people.
The important benefits of livestock farming are
A) Alternate livelihood
B) Stability in income
C) Food security
D) Nutrition for family
E) Fertilizer for farming
F) Fuel for cooking
A significant number of women also find employment in the livestock sector.
Poultry farming accounts for the largest share with 58%
Other animals which include camels, horses, ponies and mules only account for
1%.

Measures to increase livestock productivity in India

India has about 300 million cattle, including 108 million buffalos in 2012. Though in
terms of numbers over livestock population is quite impressive but its productivity
is quite low as compared to other
countries
1) It requires imported technology and promotion of good breeds of animal to
enhance
productivity.
2) Improving veterinary care of credit facilities to small and marginal farmers and
landless labourers would enhance sustainable livelihood option through livestock
production.

Performance of the Indian dairy sector

It is the business of producing, storing and distribution of milk and its products.
A land mark in indias livestock rearing has been the implementation of “ operation
flood”
  Just as new agricultural strategy led to green revolution, operation flood led
to white revolution.
 Operation flood is a system whereby all the farmers can pool their milk
produced according to different
 grading ( based on quality) and the same is processed and marketed for
urban centres through cooperatives.
 For example milk cooperative of Gujarat
 In the system farmers are assured of a fair price and income from the supply
of milk to urban markets.

 As a result of operation flood, milk production in the country has increased

by more than 8 times
 between 1951-2014.

 Per capita availability of milk was 375 grams in 2017-18

Fisheries
 Fishing is the source of livelihood for lakhs of people.
 It refers to the occupation devoted to the catching processing and selling of
fish and other aquatic animals.
 Fisheries sector plays an important role in the socio-economic development
of the country. It provides gainful employment to a large section of
economically backward population of the country
 particularly coastal areas. The fishing communities regards the water body as
‘mother ‘or provider. The water bodies consists of
 seas, oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, ponds etc.
 Water body as mother or provider as they provide life giving source to the
fishing community. The development of fisheries has become very fast after
progressive increase in budgeting allocations and
 introduction of new technologies in fisheries and aquaculture.
 Fisheries sector which includes fish output from
o Inland water sources
o Marine products i.e. sea fish and other kinds of sea food
o Presently fish production from the inland sources contribute 64% and
the remaining 36% comes from the marine sector. Even though women
were not involved in active fishing. 60% of the workforce in export
marketing and
o 40% in internal marketing are women.
o Total fish production accounts for 0.8%of total GDP.
 o Fishermen community is socially and economically backward. They face
problems such as
o Underemployment
o Low income
o Illiteracy
o Low occupational mobility
o Indebtedness

o There is a need to increase credit facilities through cooperatives and

SHGs for fishermen to meet the working capital requirements for
marketing.
o In India west Bengal,Andhra Pradesh, kerala ,gujarat, Tamil nadu,
Mahrasthra are major fish producing states.

SUGGESTIONS
1. problems like over fishing and pollution need to be contolled and regulated.
2. Welfare programme for the fishing community have to be reoriented which can
provide long term gains at sustainence of livelihood.
HORTICULTURE

India has a rich and diverse soil of different climatic condition

1. This diversity enables us to produce a large variety of fruits , vegetable,
medicinal and aromatic plants, spices etc.. plantation crops and flowers.
That is, it is the art of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal plants
and spices.
2. These crops played a vital role in providing food and nutrition besides
addressing employment.
3. Horticulture has emerged as a successful sustainable livelihood option. It
contributes nearly one third of agriculture output of 6% of GDP in India.
4. India has emerged as a world leader in producing a variety of fruits like
mangoes, bananas, coconuts ,cashewnut and a number of spices and second
largest producer of fruits and vegetables.
a.flower harvesting
b.nursary maintenance
c.hybrid seed production
d.tissue culture
e.propogation of fruits and flowers
f.food processing
are highly numerative employment options for women in india.
revolution
5.Like green revolution in agriculture, there is white revolution in milk, there is
golden revolution in horticulture, improved productivity in many horticultural
produce.
NOTE: GOLDEN REVOLUTION
 Period of 1991-2003 in known as golden revolution.
 During the period planned investments in horticulture became
highlyproductive and emerged as a sustainable livelihood option.
 National horticultural mission has been implemented to increase
horticultural production.

NOTE 2: FORTICULTURE
 It is a branch of horticulture
 It is the scientific cultivation of flowers
REQUIRMENTS FOR ENHANCING THE ROLE OF HORTICULTURE

1. investment in infrastructure like electricity.

2. cold storage systrems.
3. marketing linkage
4. small scale processing units
5. technology improvement of dissemination

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
a.It refers to that branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and
telecommunications to retrieve and store and transit information.
b. IT has created millions of jobs in the economy.
even though IT companies are mainly concentrated in cities and urban areas, it has
slowly started spreading to smaller towns.

IT industry benefits agriculture and the rural community in many ways such as:
i. providing information to farmers on agricultural prices.
ii. providing information regarding weather
iii. providing information about agricultural inputs
iv. predicting areas of food insecurity.
Government can predict areas of food insecurity and vulnerability using
approximate information and software tools. so that action can be taken to
prevent or reduce food insecurity.
v. Disseminate information
IT has a positive impact on the agricultural sector because it can disseminate
information regarding
a. technology and its application
b. prices
c. weather and soil conditions for growing different crops etc.
Large number of IT training sectors , computer aided design sectors,
Web design institutes, internet cafes etc. have come up even in small towns and
slowly spreading even to rural areas,
many of the centre employ women
THEREFORE ,it is emerging as a major alternative livelihood option.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIC FARMING

( This portion is deleted for the batch 2020-2021 and added to 2021-
2022 batch)
India became self-sufficient with the introduction of green revolution. But it
created a problem also i.e. new agricultural strategy which use
1. chemical fertilizer
2. pesticides
3. insecticides etc
Excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides leads to
1. loss of soil fertility
2. poisoning of soil and water
3. contamination of food produce with pesticides
4. destruction of friendly pests and insects
5. damaging the ecosystem
Therefore efforts have been made to evolve technologies which are ecofriendly
and are essential for sustainable development. The result is sustainable organic
farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as
1. crop rotation
2. green manure
3. compost
4. biological pest control
This method avoids the use of synthetic chemical fertilizer and genetically
modified organisms. It is ecofriendly. It restores, maintains and enhances the
ecological balance.

BENEFITS OF ORGANIC FARMING

1. Organic food has high nutritional value in it. It provides healthy food.
2. It is labor intensive. Thus it generates more employment
 3. Organic farming has highly demanded in the international market. Therefore
higher income can be earned through exports
4. It is eco friendly and sustainable
5. Economical
Organic farming offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural input such
as HYV, pesticides, fertilizers etc. with locally produced cheaper organic inputs.
6. From environment point of view
Organic farming helps in maintaining environmental health and reduce
pollution .it ensures optimum utilization of resources for short term benefits,
conserves them for future generations.
It helps in improving soils physical properties and ultimately agricultural
productivity.
PROBLEMS/ CHALLENGES /LIMITATIONS OF ORGANIC FARMING.

1. The yield from organic farming are less than modern agricultural farming in the
initial years
2. Therefore, small and marginal farmers may find it difficult to adapt to large
scale farming production.
3. Organic farming is more expensive than farming based on inorganic inputs. For
example, it may be easy and cheaper to get
a) Hybrid seeds
b) Fertilizers
c) Pesticides etc. which are highly subsidized
It may be quite expensive to procure required quality of
a) Animal manure
 b) Compost
c) High quality of traditional seeds
Therefore most farmers prefer inorganic farming .
4. Shorter food life
Organic produce has a shorter shelf life as compared to sprayed produce
5. Limited choice of crops
The choice of production of off season crops is quite is limited in organic
farming.
6. Organic farming faces problems of inadequate infrastructure and marketing
facilities
7. By simply avoiding the use of chemical fertilizers is not organic farming. It is a
system of farming that focuses on
a. maintaining soil health rather than plant health
b. Plant nutrition depends upon biologically derived nutrients instead of
using readily soluble forms of nutrients.
Suggestions
1. Creating awareness and willingness on the part of farmers to adapt to new
technology.
2. Provision of adequate infrastructure
3. Appropriate agricultural policy
4. Problem of marketing products need to addressed
In spite of all these limitations, organic farming helps in sustainable development
of agriculture and India has a clear advantage in producing organic products for
both domestic and international markets.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
Agricultural diversification is directly related to rural income. How ? OR Explain
the link between agricultural diversification and rural income OR the prime
minister urged to increase rural income by increasing non farm activities. Explain
how non farm activities can lead to rise in income of people in rural sector?
1.
Ans. Diversification means increasing the produce of horticulture and during
development along with the production of food grains and commercial crops.
It includes two aspects
 Change in the cropping pattern.
Under diversification of agriculture resources are shifted from
production of low value products to production of high value
products
This increases the income of farmers as they are now getting more
value in return for the same cost.
As agriculture is a seasonal occupation, crop diversification may
also help in achieving stable farm income and minimise the risk
involved due to fluctuation in production and market prices.

 Shift of work force from agricultural to other allied activities and

non-agricultural sector.
Eg. Livestock, poultry, fisheries etc.
This helps in easing the pressure of population on agriculture and
also helps in supplementing the rural income.

2. Though livestock population is quite impressive its productivity remains low.

Suggest ways to improve livestock productivity in our country.
Ans. Following are some ways in which the livestock productivity in our
country can be improved.
 Improve technology and promotion of good breeds of animals can
enhance the livestock productivity
 Improve veterinary care
 Improved credit facilities to small and marginal farmers can
enhance productivity and sustainable livelihood option.
  Investment in infrastructure, marketing linkages and dissemination
are other ways in which the productivity of livestock can be
increased.
3. Why did there was a need for alternative stem of farming?
 The need for diversification arises from the fact that there is
greater risk in depending exclusively on farming for livelihood.
 Not only have to reduce the risk from agricultural sector but
also to provide productive sustainable livelihood optioned to
rural people.
 Much of the agricultural employment activities are
concentrated in the Kharif season.
 But during the rabi season in areas there are inadequate
irrigation facilities, it becomes difficult to find gainful
employment.
 In the above circumstances, expansion into other sectors is
essential to provide supplementary gainful employment and in
realising higher level of income for rural people to overcome
poverty.
 Heavy imports of fertilisers impose a huge burden on our
balance of payment.
 Conventional agriculture relies heavily on chemical fertilisers
and toxic pesticides which enter the food supply causing harm
to human health.
 Rising environmental cost involved in the increasing use of
fertilisers as it is leading to soil degradation.

4. IT plays a significant role in achieving a sustainable development and food

security. Comment OR IT has gone a long way to bring about new
developments to help the farmers . elucidate

a.It refers to that branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers
and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transit information.
b. IT has created millions of jobs in the economy.
 even though IT companies are mainly concentrated in cities and urban areas,
it has slowly started spreading to smaller towns.

IT industry benefits agriculture and the rural community in many ways such
as:
i. providing information to farmers on agricultural prices.
ii. providing information regarding weather
iii. providing information about agricultural inputs
iv. predicting areas of food insecurity.
Government can predict areas of food insecurity and vulnerability using
approximate information and software tools. so that action can be taken to
prevent or reduce food insecurity.
v. Disseminate information
IT has a positive impact on the agricultural sector because it can disseminate
information regarding
a. technology and its application
b. prices
c. weather and soil conditions for growing different crops etc.
Large number of IT training sectors , computer aided design sectors,
Web design institutes, internet cafes etc. have come up even in small towns
and slowly spreading even to rural areas,
many of the centre employ women
THEREFORE ,it is emerging as a major alternative livelihood option.

5. Advantages of agricultural marketing

 It helps the farmers in getting remunerative prices for their produce
 It ensures a smooth supply of agricultural raw materials to agro based
industries in the country.
 It ensures a regular supply of food grains to the country’s population.
 The surplus agricultural produce when sold in the international market,
becomes a source of foreign exchange earnings.

6. What is horticulture? How has it become a means of improving livelihood for

the unprivileged classes? What are the challenges being faced in this sector?
 The study or practice of growing fruits, flowers and vegetables are called
horticulture.
India has a rich and diverse soil of different climatic condition
1. This diversity enables us to produce a large variety of fruits , vegetable,
medicinal and aromatic plants, spices etc.. plantation crops and flowers.
That is, it is the art of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal plants
and spices.
2. These crops played a vital role in providing food and nutrition besides
addressing employment.
3. Horticulture has emerged as a successful sustainable livelihood option. It
contributes nearly one third of agriculture output of 6% of GDP in India.
4. India has emerged as a world leader in producing a variety of fruits like
mangoes, bananas, coconuts ,cashewnut and a number of spices and second
largest producer of fruits and vegetables.
a.flower harvesting
b.nursary maintenance
c.hybrid seed production
d.tissue culture
e.propogation of fruits and flowers
f.food processing
are highly numerative employment options for women in india.
revolution
5.Like green revolution in agriculture, there is white revolution in milk, there is
golden revolution in horticulture, improved productivity in many horticultural
produce.

A significant fact is that nearly 20% of the total rural employment is generated by
horticulture and related production activities.

Challenges
 The bulk of acreage under horticulture has expanded at the cost of acreage
under pulses causing a severe shortfall in the supply of pulses and a
consequent cut in their consumption due to high prices.
  More investment is also required in infrastructure like electricity, cold
storage system, marketing linkages, small scale processing units and
technology improvement and dissemination.

7. Rural banking has been not able to provide adequate credit to the farmers.
Why?
 Inadequate credit
 Lack of coordination
 Unequal distribution
 High default rate
 Demand for collateral
 Problems of cooperative
 Habit of thrift
Most financial institutions have failed to develop a culture of thrift among
the farming families due to which mobilisation of deposits have remained
low.
 Mobilisation of resources.

8. Any 3 challenges facing rural development in India?

Intro to rural development
Challenge
 Infrastructure development
It is the key to any developmental process.
 Basic infrastructure like electricity, irrigation, credit availability, transport
facilties, construction of roads and feeder roads to highways etc are the
areas which still need attention of the govt. so as to gain commanding
heights
THANK YOU