Farming in Palampur - Concepts - Chapter 1 Class 9 Economics - The Story of Village Palampur - Economics

Land is fixed

• Farming is the main production activity in Palampur.
• 75 percent of the people who are working are dependent on farming for their livelihood.
• The land area under cultivation is practically fixed.
• There exists no further scope to increase farm production by bringing new land under cultivation.

Is there a way one can grow more from the same land?

• All land is cultivated in Palampur. No land is left idle.
• During the rainy season (Kharif) farmers grow jowar and bajra. These plants are used as cattle feed.
• Cultivation of potatoes is done in the month of October and December.
• In the winter season (rabi), fields are sown with wheat.
• A part of the land area is also devoted to Sugarcane which is harvested annually.
• The main reason why farmers are able to grow three different crops in a year in Palampur is due to the well-developed system of irrigation.
• By the mid-1970s the entire cultivated area of 200 hectares was irrigated.
• To grow more than one crop on a piece of land during the year is known as multiple cropping.

• All farmers in Palampur grow at least two main crops ; many are growing potatoes as the third crop in the past fifteen to twenty years.

•  One way of increasing production from the same land is by multiple cropping.
• The other way is to use modern farming methods for higher yield.
• Yield is measured as a crop produced on a given piece of land during a single season.
•  Till the mid1960s, 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.

• The Green Revolution in the late 1960s introduced the Indian farmer to the cultivation of wheat and rice using high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of seeds.
•  Compared to the traditional seeds, the HYV seeds promised to produce much greater amounts of grain on a single plant.
• As a result, the same piece of land would now produce far larger quantities of foodgrains than was possible earlier. HYV seeds , however, needed plenty of water and also chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce the best results.
• Higher yields were possible only from a combination of HYV seeds, irrigation, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
• 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 tubewells for irrigation and made use of HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides in farming.
• Some of the farmers bought farm machinery, like tractors and threshers, which made ploughing and harvesting faster.

Will the land sustain?

• Land being a natural resource , it is necessary to be careful in its use.
•   Modern farming methods have overused the natural resource base.
•  Green Revolution is associated with the loss of soil fertility due to the increased use of chemical fertilizers.
•  Continuous use of groundwater for tubewell irrigation has led to the depletion of the water table.
•   Environmental resources , like soil fertility and groundwater, are built up over years.

How is land distributed between the farmers of Palampur?

• In Palampur, about one-third of the 450 families are landless, i.e. 150 families, most of them Dalits, have no land for cultivation.
• 240 families cultivate small plots of land less than 2 hectares in size.
•  In Palampur, there are 60 families of medium and large farmers who cultivate more than 2 hectares of land.

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 along with their families cultivate their own fields.
• Medium and large farmers hire farm laborers to work in the field.
• Farm labourers do not have a right over the crops grown on the land.
• Instead they are  paid wages by the farmer for whom they work.
• Wages can be in cash or in kind e.g. crop. Sometimes laboureres get meals also.
• Wages vary widely from region to region , from crop to crop, from one farm to another(like sowing and harvesting).
• A farm labourer might be employed on a daly basis, or for one particular farm activity like harvesting, or for the whole year.
• The minimum wage for a farm laborer set by the government is Rs 300 per day(March 2017).

The capital needed in farming.

• Modern farming methods require a great deal of capital.
• Small farmers have to borrow money to arrange for capital.
• They borrow from large farmers or village moneylenders or traders who supply various inputs for cultivation.
• The rate of interest on such loans is very high . They are put in great distress to repay the loan.

• The medium and large farmers have their own savings from farming.

Sale of Surplus Farm Products

• Farmers retain a part of the crop for the family’s consumption and sell the surplus crop.
• The traders at the market buy the crop and sell it to shopkeepers in the towns and cities.