Key Notes: Rural Development | Economics Class 12 - Commerce PDF Download

Introduction

• Rural development aims to improve economic and social conditions in rural areas.
• Key areas of improvement: employment opportunities, and agricultural productivity.
• Significance: Over two-thirds of the population is dependent on agriculture, and one-third lives below the poverty line.

Objectives of Rural Development

• Enhancing agricultural sector productivity.
• Creating supplementary sources of income.
• Improving education and healthcare facilities.
• Developing infrastructure.
• Enhancing human resource development.
• Mitigating poverty.

Key Initiatives in Rural Development

• Crop diversification.
• Organic farming.
• Human resource development.
• Improved healthcare.
• Sustainable livelihood alternatives.

Rural Development in India

• Rural economic growth depends on funding for agricultural and non-agricultural productivity.
• Long time gaps between sowing and revenue force farmers to borrow for initial costs.
• After independence, moneylenders exploited poor farmers with high interest rates and unfair practices.
• In 1969, social banking was introduced, creating agencies for rural credit.
• NABARD was established in 1982 to oversee rural financial activities.
• The Green Revolution strengthened rural credit, leading to a productive credit system.
• Rural banking now includes RRBs, cooperatives, commercial banks, self-help groups, and land development banks, offering affordable credit for rural development.

Sources of Rural Credit

• Informal sources (moneylenders, relatives, traders).
• Formal sources (cooperative credit, commercial banks, government institutions, NABARD, self-help groups).

Reasons for Rural Credit

• Extended time lag between sowing and revenue.
• Input purchases (seeds, fertilizers).
• Personal expenditures.
• Support for agricultural marketing.

Agricultural Marketing

• Involves assembling, storing, processing, transporting, and distributing agricultural commodities.
• Measures to improve marketing: regulated markets, cooperative marketing, infrastructural facilities, standardization and grading.

Policy Instruments

• Minimum Support Price.
• Buffer Stock.
• Public Distribution System.

Diversification of Agricultural Activity

• Crop Diversification: Shifting from single cropping to diverse cropping, including food grains to cash crops, to encourage commercial farming.
• Labour Shift: With overcrowding in agriculture, workers move to non-agricultural sectors like livestock, poultry, and fisheries for income and sustainable livelihoods.
• Animal Husbandry: Involves breeding and caring for livestock for economic gain.
• Fisheries and Horticulture: Fisheries have advanced with funding and technology; horticulture focuses on plant cultivation.
• IT in Agriculture: Supports sustainable development by promoting alternatives beyond traditional farming.

Role of IT Industries in Agriculture Development

• Information technology's impact on agriculture.
• Predicting food insecurity and vulnerability.
• Circulating information on technologies, prices, and weather.
• Making every village a knowledge centre.

Organic Farming

• Cultivation without synthetic chemicals or GMOs.
• Advantages: affordability, export potential, nutrition.
• Disadvantages: lack of awareness, infrastructure, and high production costs.

Operation Flood

• The milk cooperative network was launched in 1966.
• Focus on milk collection through cooperatives.
• Success in increasing milk production and market value.

Conclusion

• Rural sector development is crucial.
• Need for diversification into various industries.
• Infrastructure development, farmer-friendly policies, and communication are key to rural transformation.