Important Questions: Rural Development | Economics Class 12 - Commerce PDF Download

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Q1: What do you mean by rural development?
Ans: Rural development is a strategy for improving the economic and social well-being of rural communities.

Q2: Write two instruments to safeguard the interests of farmers by the government.
Ans: The two instruments are minimum support price (MSP) fixing and buffer stock.

Q3: What do you mean by micro credit programmer?
Ans: The distribution of credit by self-help groups (SHG) to their various members is known as a micro credit program, and the individual who is skilled in it is known as a micro-credit programmer.

Q4: What do you mean by agricultural marketing?
Ans: Agricultural marketing is a type of marketing in which farm products are distributed through wholesalers and stockists to end users.

Short Answer Type Questions

Q5: What is horticulture? How does it work?
Ans: Horticulture is a subset of crop agriculture, along with agronomy and forestry. Horticulture traditionally involves the cultivation of garden crops such as nuts, fruits, culinary herbs, vegetables, spices, beverage crops and ornamental plants.  Horticulture is bifurcated into the production of:

• Food plants, it mainly includes olericulture and pomology 
• Ornamental plants, it mainly includes landscape horticulture and floriculture.

There are two types of crops, permanent and temporary. The permanent crops are only planted once, they are not replanted again and again. While the temporary crops can be sown as well as harvested more than one time in the same year. These crops can be sown in some module trays or plant mats.

Q6: What is sustainable development?
Ans: Sustainable development is the concept for achieving human development goals while preserving natural systems' ability to supply the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society rely. Sustainable development is defined as the development that meets the requirements of the present without jeopardizing future generations' ability.
A simple graphic of three overlapping circles symbolizing social, economic, and environmental progress, emphasizing the necessity for balancing and regulating the trade-offs between them, is frequently used to depict sustainable development. Sustainable development has an impact that crosses political boundaries, necessitating collaboration. One of the best instances of sustainable development is the use of wind energy at power houses, workplaces, and other buildings or to pump water. Wind, after all, is a free resource.

Q7: What do you mean by organic food?
Ans: Organic food is grown by farmers who prioritize the use of renewable resources as well as soil and water conservation in order to improve environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, eggs, poultry and dairy products come from animals that were not given antibiotics or growth hormones.
Organic food is grown without the use of most common pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or sewage sludge, biotechnology, or ionizing radiation. Farmers who raise organic products do not utilize traditional techniques of fertilization or weed and bug control.
Pyrethrin, which is naturally contained in the Chrysanthemum flower, is an example of a natural pesticide. Crop rotation, green manures and compost, biological pest management, and mechanical cultivation are the main methods of organic farming.  Its goal is to generate food while maintaining an ecological balance in order to avoid soil fertility or pest problems. Organic agriculture adopts a preventative strategy rather than reacting to problems as they arise.

Q8: What is TANWA? Or Define the term TANWA. Where is it used?
Ans: TANWA is an acronym for Tamil Nadu Women in Agriculture. It is a Tamil Nadu-based project that aims to train women in cutting-edge farming techniques. It encourages women to take an active role in increasing agricultural output and household income. They support small-scale family activities like mushroom cultivation, soap manufacturing, doll making, and other income-generating activities using the collected funds.

Q9: What is the adoption of a village by Parliamentarians?
Ans: Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) is another name for it. It is a rural development program that focuses on village development, including social and cultural development. The program was started by India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in 2014. Under this initiative, each Member of Parliament must select one village from the constituency that they represent, excluding their own or their in-laws' villages, and set requirements for it to become a model village by 2019.

Q10: Which state has an efficient implementation of milk cooperatives? Explain with examples.
Ans: Gujarat is the Indian state with the most effective milk cooperative implementation. Amul, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation's brand, is Asia's largest dairy brand. 170 Milk Producers' Co-operative Unions and 15 State Cooperative Milk Marketing Federations process and market milk. Cooperative-created brands have been synonymous with quality and value throughout the years. Vijaya (AP), Verka (Punjab), Saras (Rajasthan), and Nandini (Karnataka) are some of the other brands . 

Long Answer Type Questions

Q11: Is rural banking successful in India? What are the difficulties?
Ans: Rural residents require the same banking services as those in larger towns and cities. A rural community bank may provide typical retail banking services, such as loans and mortgages, to help personal and business customers handle their financial needs close to home. Some rural banks acquire specific commercial expertise in sectors such as agribusiness, depending on their location and local business focus.
Rural Banking Successful or not?

• With the bulk of the Indian population still residing in rural or semi-urban areas, rural banking has become an essential component of the Indian financial markets.
• The Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India have been working tirelessly to achieve total financial inclusion, i.e. timely and adequate access to financial services and credit at an affordable cost, across our huge country. 
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is one of the new government's latest initiatives that has undoubtedly contributed to bringing banking to every home.
• This scheme will, over time, significantly reduce the financial inclusion gap between rural and urban areas, but the fact that approximately 70% of India's population is still rural and banking facility penetration is as low as 24%, i.e. only this percentage of people in these areas have formal bank accounts, cannot be overlooked.
• These banks' activities have strengthened the banking culture by making formal credit available to rural households. 
• These facilities have aided in the modernization of the agriculture-dominated economy. 
• Banks must consider the nuances of rural culture and recognize that the norms of rural economy differ from those of metropolitan dynamics. Everything, however, has its limitations, hence we can say that rural banking still has a long way to go for being fully successful in a country like India.

Constraints of Rural Banking:

• Losses: This could be due to high overhead costs, a fall in lending rates, smaller profit margins, a significant increase in employee pay and allowances, and so on.
• Poor progress: RRBs' progress falls short of expectations and is slow when compared to other types of banks due to numerous constraints on their operations.
• Limited investment scope: The primary goal of RRBs was to provide credit to the poor and vulnerable segments of society, such as small and marginal farmers and other vulnerable groups.
• Lack of training facilities: RRB employees are often urban-oriented, and they may be unfamiliar with the challenges and conditions that exist in rural areas. The growth of RRBs is further hampered by a lack of training facilities in these locations
• Capital deficiency: Capital adequacy is the fundamental foundation of financial stability. RRBs have capital inadequacy because most of them have significant losses on their balance sheets that are eating away at all of their capital.

Q12: What are the steps taken by the Indian government in developing rural markets? 
Or  
Explain the steps necessary to develop rural markets.
Ans: Rural shoppers, in particular, aspire to acquire branded, high-quality products. As a result, Indian firms are very optimistic about the country's rural consumer markets, which are predicted to grow faster than urban consumer markets. Since 2000, India's per capita GDP in rural areas has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2%. In rural and semi-urban India, the FMCG sector is expected to exceed ＄20 billion by 2018 and reach ＄100 billion by 2025.
The following are some of the most significant investments and advancements in India's rural economy.

• The Ministry of Rural Development needs to complete 48,812 kilometers of rural roads by March 31, 2017 as part of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which has a completion rate of 67.53 percent (32,963 kilometers) as of January 27, 2017.
• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) plans to install over 200,000 point-of-sale (PoS) devices in 100,000 villages and distribute RuPay cards to over 34 million farmers across India to enable farmers to conduct cashless transactions.
• Magma Fincorp, a non-banking financing company (NBFC) located in Kolkata, intends to extend its activities in South India, with a particular emphasis on rural and semi-urban markets, in order to assist the company grow swiftly.
• In order to capitalize on considerable revenue opportunities from the Reserve Bank of India's financial inclusion effort, Bharti Airtel has applied for a payments bank license and has enlisted Kotak Mahindra Bank as a potential investor.
• Payments banks are intended to spread throughout the country's rural and remote areas, providing limited but important services such as money transfers and loans. Banks have the expertise, while telecom companies have the network, making it an excellent fit.
• The government is doing everything it can to correct the situation. For example, in order to ensure a fair price for farm produce, the government releases MSP (Minimum Support Price) for certain farm products such as wheat, rice, and sugarcane. 

Q13: Explain green revolution and golden revolution with suitable examples.
Ans: The explanations are given below:
Green Revolution: 

• Green revolution refers to the use of HYV (High Yielding Variety) seeds, and various other measures such as increased and better use of fertilizers, irrigation facilities, pesticides etc in order to enhance productivity.
• The Green Revolution is associated with increased wheat and rice output.
• It was initiated by Norman Borlaug in the 1960s
• It is generally known that the Green Revolution in Punjab in the mid 1960s contributed significantly to India's food self-sufficiency by bringing about a quantum leap in food grain wheat and rice output and productivity. Chemical fertilizers enabled crops to receive additional nutrients, resulting in increased yield. 
• Synthetic herbicides and pesticides, which were newly developed, controlled weeds, discouraged or killed insects, and avoided diseases, resulting in increased output. As a result, India became self-sufficient in wheat and rice production. 
• As a result of the Green Revolution and the introduction of chemical fertilizers, synthetic herbicides and insecticides, high-yield crops, and the process of multiple cropping, the agricultural industry’s produce was significantly higher.
• Productivity growth made it possible to feed the world's rising population. 
• There have been numerous achievements in India as a result of the green revolution, such as an increase in per hectare productivity, industrial development, farmer prosperity, a positive effect on consumers, an increase in food production, capitalistic farming, ploughing back profits, a very positive effect on rural employment, and so on.

Golden Revolution

• The Golden Revolution is associated with the increased use of horticulture crops, which is the production of fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, and so on, so as to increase their production. 
• It was from the period ranging between 1991 to 2003.
• As a result of the Golden Revolution, India became the world leader in the production of fruits such as bananas, mangoes, spices, and coconut. 
• The reason for the Indian farmer's increased preference for horticultural crops is because vegetables are short-season crops that are typically farmed on small patches of ground by marginal farmers, generally on less than an acre of land. 
• As land holdings become more fragmented, vegetable cultivation provides farmers with immediate returns, as opposed to some pulse kinds, which can take up to six months to harvest. 
• Improved salaries, urbanization, and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables appear to be fuelling demand. 
• Farmers continue to plant perishables despite frequent price swings, indicating that the returns are higher for these crops than for traditional food grains. This represents a significant shift in Indian agriculture. 
• Farmers appear to be taking additional risks by growing perishables, where annual losses might reach Rs 32, 000 crore.

Q14: What are the problems faced by farmers in the initial years of organic farming?
Ans: Farmers encountered the following issues during their first years of organic farming:

• Inability to procure: Organic farming necessitates the use of organic manure, biofertilizers, and pesticides. Although these inputs are less expensive to purchase, poor farmers are still unable to obtain them.
• Infrastructure: There is inadequacy of infrastructure required for organic farming.
• Income Generation: Because the income generated by organic farming is lower than that of modern agricultural farming, small and marginal farmers do not use it.
• Expensive: Because organic foods are expensive, it is difficult for them to find a market for their product.
• Insufficient Yield: The yields from organic farming are not as much as modern farming.
• Awareness: Lack of awareness regarding organic farming, its financing and market aspects is there.
• Shorter Shelf Life: These products have a shorter shelf life.
• Choice: The production choice of organic crops during off season is very limited.

However, because this method of farming requires more labor, farmers gain a comparative advantage in organic farming.

Q15: How can IT help achieve the target of sustainable development and food security?
Ans: Many contemporary thinkers feel that information technology can play an important role in attaining sustainable development and food security. IT cannot bring about change on its own, but good use of IT as a tool can assist in changing the situation. 

• The government can employ information technology to distribute timely information about areas prone to food insecurity, allowing for quick response.
• Farmers can access real-time weather, seed pricing, and farm produce price information. If they have access to the internet, they can also obtain pertinent information about optimal farming methods. 
• Today, mobile phones have reached the majority of Indian villages, and they can be used as a tool to bring the benefits of information technology to farmers.
• As the global population grows, much more work and ingenuity will be required to sustainably expand agricultural production, strengthen the global supply chain, reduce food losses and waste, and ensure that all people suffering from hunger and malnutrition have access to nutritious food. 
• Many people around the world feel that eradicating hunger within the next generation is doable, and they are working together to achieve this goal. 
• The Sustainable Development Goal to “End Hunger, Achieve Food Security, Improve Nutrition, and Promote Sustainable Agriculture” (SDG2) acknowledges the interdependence of supporting sustainable agriculture, empowering small farmers, promoting gender equality, ending rural poverty, ensuring healthy lifestyles, addressing climate change, and other issues addressed within the set of 17 sustainable development goals. 
• The Sustainable Development Goals encompass a wide range of themes, including urban living and education, as well as oceans, inequality, and gender. These are 17 in total, all of which were launched in 2015 with a long list of targets that must be reached by 2030. 
• E-agriculture services can provide farming advice, weather forecasts, and market pricing to farmers in their local area via short messaging service (SMS). Farmers can use the internet to learn about new practices, trade, and form new alliances.
• In India, e-Choupal provides services that assist farmers in increasing yields and securing higher prices. TradeNet, based in Accra, Ghana, has developed a platform that allows farmers and dealers from all over the world to share market information via mobile networks and the Internet. In Kenya, similar platforms are being built. 
• A comprehensive monitoring of global food supplies is an essential step in addressing food security. This includes mapping agricultural production and food shortages, as well as developing extensive databases. 
• Monitoring may be considerably aided by ICT, which allows for remote sensing of agricultural and water resources, as well as the use of computers and software to gather, analyze, and distribute information essential to food security. 
• Geographic information systems also offer excellent tools for statistical analysis.
• Rural radio connects individuals in outlying locations and assists them in improving their farming methods and productivity. 
• Farmers in rural areas can also have access to information through community telecentres, or digital villages, which provide rural residents with Internet, telephone, and fax services.