Characteristics of land:

• Land is a free gift of nature.

• It is fixed.
• It has processing costs.
• Land is immobile.
• It is heterogeneous.
• It has alternative uses.
Farming is the main production activity in
Palampur
Land area under cultivation is practically 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. There
exists no further scope to increase farm
production by bringing new land under
cultivation.
The standard unit of measuring land is hectare,
local units such as bigha, guintha etc.
 FACTS
1 Acre = 40 Guinthas

1 Guintha = 1089 Sq. Feet

1 Hectare = 2.47 Acre
1 Bigha = 20 Kathah = 14,400 square feet =
1320 square meter (approx)
1 Acre =3.0245 Bigha
1 kathah is equal to 4 decimal

1 Kattah= 1361 Sq.Feet/20 dhur

Bigha is a traditional unit of measuring
land in countries like
India, Nepal, Bangladesh.

Bigha is used as a land measuring unit in

a number states of India including
Uttarakhand , Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, West
Bengal, Assam, Gujarat, and Rajasthan.

Its sub unit is 'Biswa' (or Bisa) or 'Katha'

A bigha may have 5 to 20 biswa in different
regions.
 Cultivated Area (in Million Hectares)
180
160 157 156 156 156 156 155
140
120 129
100
80
60
40
20
0

1950-51 1990-91 2000-01 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

CROP Duration Food Used
Grains
Kharif Rainy Jowar, Cattle feed
season Bajra
and Rice
Zaid October to Potato Third crop
December
Rabi Winter Wheat for the family’s consumption
and sell the surplus wheat at
season the market

Sugarcane is harvested once every year.

 Uses of Electricity

The spread of electricity has helped the farmers

of Palampur village in the following ways :
i) Electricity has transformed the system of
irrigation.
(ii) Electricity is used to run tube wells in the
fields. By mid-1970s the entire cultivated area of 200
hectares (ha.) was irrigated. The Persian wheels are
being replaced by tube wells.
(iii) Electricity is also used to run small
businesses. For example, sugarcane crushing
machine.
 Irrigation status
 Not all villages in India have
such high levels of irrigation.
 Apart from the riverine plains,
coastal regions in our country
are well-irrigated.
 In contrast, plateau regions
such as the Deccan plateau
have low levels of irrigation.
 Of the total cultivated area in
the country a little less than
40 per cent is irrigated(man
made ) even today.
 In the remaining areas,
40%
farming is largely dependent area is
on rainfall. irrigated
Ways to increase production from the
same land
Multiple Cropping Modern Farming methods
 To grow more than one a) Multiple Cropping
crop on a piece of land
during the year is known
as multiple cropping.
 It is the most common
way of increasing
production on a given
piece of land.
 All farmers in Palampur
grow at least two main
crops.
 Many are growing
potato as the third crop
in the past fifteen to
twenty years.
 b) Modern farming
Modern methods of farming
relate to a particular of
agricultural production
consisting of high capital
inputs, manpower, the
heavy use of farm
equipment including
threshers, winnowing
machine, harvesters, the
heavy use of technology
like selective breeding,
insecticides, chemical
fertilizers and pesticides.
Modern Farming Methods
• Use of High Yielding Variety
Seeds (HYV)
• Needs irrigation facilities
• Use of Chemical Fertilisers
• Use of Modern equipments
Traditional Farming
• Use of Traditional Seeds
• Dependent on rainfall
• Use of cow dung and other
natural manures
• Use of traditional tools