THE STORY OF VILLAGE PALAMPUR

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INTRODUCTION:
• The story of village Palampur is narrative based on a research study by Gilbert Etienna.

• A village in Bulandshahr district in Western Uttar Pradesh.

• The purpose of the story is to introduce some basic concepts relating to production.

Overview of Palampur Village:

• A hypothetical village named Palampur.

• Farming is main production activity in Palampur.

• Other production activities like dairy farming, manufacturing, transportation & shopkeeping are practiced

on a limited scale.

• These production activities need various types of resources like natural resources, man-made items,

human effort, money, etc.

• Palampur is having an all weather road connecting it to a bigger village raiganj & the nearest samall town

called Shahpur.

• All kinds of vehicles move on this road.

Families:
1. No. of families: 450 2. Upper caste families: 80

3. The SCs : 1/3 of the population (75%) & land less labourers.

They live in one corner of the village in smaller houses, some of which are poorly constructed with mud &
straw.

Facilities in Palampur: Facilities in Palampur

1. Well-developed system of roads.
1. Electricity: 2. Transport
3. Electricity
• Almost houses in Palampur have electric connection.
4. Irrigation
• Electricity powers all the tubewells used for irrigating crops.( It is 5. Two Primary schools
6. One high school
used to run tubewells in the fields.) 7. One PHC
8. OnePrivate dispensary.
• besides providing power for small-scale manufacturing.

• other business activities in Palampur.

2. Schools:

• It has two primary schools & one high school.

3. Healthcare centre:

• It also has a government primary health centre & a private dispensary.

4. Irrigation:

• Tubewells, wells

5. Transport:

• Motorcycle, Tractor, Truck, Bullock cart.

Organisation of Production: (Factors of Production) Factors of production

1. Land
• Production is an activity which gives the required goods & services. 2. Labour
3. Physical Capital
• This requires four elements , which are called factors of production. a) Fixed capital
1. Land: Land & other natural resources like water, minerals, forest b) Working capital
4. Human Capital
2. Labour: Labour for carrying out the production activity may be done by manual
workers while others may require highly skilled / educated persons.

3. Physical capital:

Fixed capital Working capital

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1. Assets or capital investment that are needed to 1. Raw materials & money in
start production of goods/ services. hand are used at the time of
It included building, machines, tools, ranging from production activities to
plough to generators, turbines, computers, etc. purchase raw materials &
2. These can be used in production over many years, services required & to sell
thus are fixed in nature. finished goods.

4. Human capital:

1. Human capital is the knowledge & enterprise.

2. It required to put together all the above inputs to produce the output.

Farming in Palampur:
1) Land is fixed:

• Farming is main activity in Palampur.

• 75% of the working people in Palampur are dependent on farming for their livelihood.
• Their well being is related to production on the farms.

• The farm production can be raised by increasing the land area under cultivation.

• But no additional land has been brought under cultivation in Palampur after 1960 except wasteland.

• The situation of Palampur may be compared to that of India.

• Cultivated area in India has just increased from 120 million hectares in 1950 to 140 million hectares in

2010-11 to sustain its growing population.

• Now there is no further scope to bring new land under cultivation to increase farm production.

2) Ways to grow more from same land:

a) Multiple Cropping:
Ways to grow more from
1. All land is cultivated in Palampur; no land is left idle. same land
a) Multiple Cropping
• To increase production from the same piece of land, farmers do multiple
b) Cropping seasons
cropping. c) Cropping pattern
d) Farming Methods
• They grow more than one crop on a piece of land during the year. f) Yield:
• Multiple cropping is the most common way of increasing production.

• A part of the land is also devoted to sugarcane production which is harvested once every year.

• Sugarcane, in its raw form or as jiggery, is sold to traders in Shahpur.

Reason behind successful multiple cropping:

• The village of Palampur has a well-developed system of irrigation.

• Availability of electricity is the main reason behind the developed system of irrigation.

• Persian wheels that irrigated small fields through wells are replaced by tubewells.

• In the beginning, a few tubewells were installed by private tubewells.

• Due to this, by mid 1970s, the entire cultivated area of 200 hectares in the village brought under irrigation.

b) Cropping seasons in Palampur: (Kharif & Rabi )

Kharif Season Rabi Season

1. It is identified with rainy/ wet season. 1. It is identified with winter / dry season.
2. Crops are sown in June-July & harvested in 2. Crops are sown in Oct.- Nov. & harvested in
November.-January. April-May.
3. Kharif crops are jowar & bajra. 3. Wheat is an important rabi crop.
4. Kharif cultivation is followed by potato cultivation 4. Farmers keep enough wheat for their family’s
in the months of Octber to December as the third consumption & sell the rest of the wheat in the
crop. market at Raiganj.
Pattern: ( Single, Double, Multiple )

Single Cropping

Double cropping

Multiple Cropping

• Well developed
irrigation
system
• Regular
electricity supply
• Government &
private
tubewells for
irrigation
• Use of modern
farming
methods
• Surplus wheat
production
In this, one single
crop is grown
during a year on a
given piece of
land.
In this, two crops
are raised, during
a year on a given
piece of land.

In this, three or
more crops are
raised during a
year on a given
piece of land.
Farming Methods:
Traditional Farming Methods Modern Farming Methods
1. These include practices which Indian farmers have 1. These include use electricity, machinery, other
been using from many generations. sources of energy & irrigation facilities.
2. Use of a pair of bullocks for ploughing the field. 2. High yielding varieties of seeds.
3. Drawing water from the wells. 3. Chemical fertilizers.
4. Transporting produce to the market through 4. Pseticides
bullock carts. 5. Insecticides.
5. Farmers work with traditional wooden tools & 6. Tubewells & canals as sources of irrigation.
equipment. 7. Modern implements.
6. Organic manure provides nutrition to the soil. 8. Result: The productivity of land increase manifold.
7. Result: Low productivity

Yield:
• Meaning: Yield is measured as crop produced on a given piece of land during a single season.

• Methods to increase Yield : 1) Adoption of Multiple Farming.

2) Adoption of Modern Farming Methods

Advantages of spreading electricity in Palampur:

1. It helps in transformation of irrigation system.

2. It helps farmers to shift from traditional Persion wheels to electric-run tubewells.

3. Electric-run tubewells have more capacity than Persion wheels.

4. It leads whole society from darkness to light.

Green Revolution:
Meaning: revolution brought about in the field of
agriculture by using yielding varieties of seeds
fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides, insecticides etc. in
the late 1960s in the states of Punjab, Haryana &
Western Uttar Pradesh.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. High yield due to use of high yielding varieties of 1. Loss of soil fertility due to increased use of
seeds. fertilizers.
2. Use of machines such as tractors, threshers have
made ploughing and harvesting faster & easier.
3. Higher yields enabled farmers to sell the surplus 2. Continuous use of ground water for tubewell
food in the market to earn more money. irrigation has reduced the water table below the
4. Pesticides & insecticides are able to protect the ground.
crops from pests & insects. 3. Environmental resources like soil fertility & ground
5. A goof irrigation system can enhance crop water are built up oer many years.
production. Once destroyed, it is very difficult to restore them.
4. Chemical fertilizers dissolve in the ground water &
pollute it.
5. They kill bacteria & micro organisms helpful for
the soil.
6. Increased use of fertilizers can make the soil
alkaline . late 1960s in the states of Punjab, Haryana
& Western Uttar Pradesh.

Will the land sustain? (Explain the Following points)

1. Overuse of natural resources.

2. Less of soil fertility

3. Reduced ground water table.

Land distribution:
1. Unequal distribution of land.

2. 150 families are landless. ( 33% of the people are landless)

3. 240 families have small plots of land ( less than 2 h.)

4. 60 families have large & medium farms. ( A few of the large farmers have land extending over 10
hectares/more.)

Who will provide the labour:

1. Small farmers- Cultivated their own land.

2. Medium farmers- Hire laboures (Wages in cash / kind, Varied duration of employment, less wages)

3. Large farmers- Hire laboures (Wages in cash / kind, Varied duration of employment, less wages)

• The minimum wages for a farm labourers set by the government is Rs 115 (April, 2011) per day, but Dala
gets only Rs 80.
• There is heavy competition for work among the farm labourers in Palampur.

• So people agree to work for lower wages.

The capital needed in farming:

Small farmers & landless labourers Large & medium farmers
1) Borrow money from moneylenders 1) Use saved money.
& traders. 2) Lend money to small farmers.
2) High rate of interest. 3) Buy cattle, tractors / set up shops.
3) Loan repayment difficult.

Sales of surplus farm products:

1. Small farmers use substantial share for family needs.

2. Large & medium farmers sell in market.

Non-Farm activities in Palampur:

1. Dairy- the other common activity:
Dairy is acommon activity in many families of Palampur.

People feed their buffalos on various kinds of grass & Jowar & Bajra that grows during the rainy season.

The milk is sold in Raiganj. Two traders from Shahpur town have set up collection cum chilling centres at
Raiganj from where the milk is transported to far away towns and cities.

2. Small-scale manufacturing:
Less than 50 people are engaged in manufacturing in Palampur.

Manufacturing in Palampur involves very simple production methods & are done on a small scale.

3. The shopkeepers of Palampur:

The traders of Palampur are shopkeepers who buy various goods from wholesale markets in the cities & sell
them in the village.

4. Transport: a fast developing sector:

Rickshawallahs, tongawallahs, jeep, tractor, truck drivers, bullock cart, bogey.

Use of HYV seeds:

• The Green revolution in the 1960s introduced the Indian farmers to the cultivation of

wheat & rice using High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of seeds.

• HYV seeds produced much greater amounts of grain on a single plant as compared to a

traditional seed plant.

• Higher yields were only possible with the combination of HYV seeds, irrigation, chemical

fertilizers, pesticides.

• In India, farmers of Punjab, Haryana & Western Uttar Pradesh were the first to try out

modern methods of farming.

• Some farmers also bought farm machinery like tractors & threshers.

• This made ploughing & harvesting faster. In Palampur, with the HYV seeds, the yield of

wheat went uo to 3200 kg per hectare as compared to 1300 kg per hectare with the

traditional seeds.

• Farmers now had greater amounts of surplus wheat to sell in the markets.

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Question:
1) Highlight the basic constraints in raising production from a farm. (CBSE 2014)

Ans: The basic constraints in raising from a farm are:

a. The land area under cultivation is practically fixed.

b. There has been no expansion in land area under cultivation after 1960s. By then, some wastelands in the
villages had been converted to cultivate land.

c. There is no further scope to increase the farm production by bringing new land area under cultivation as
no new land is available.

2) Explain the term physical capital. Mention its different types with examples. (CBSE 2010,11,12)

3. Give three reasons why small farmers have to arrange capital by borrowing. (CBSE 2013)

Ans: The three reasons why small farmers have to arrange capital by borrowing are:

a) To buy seeds & water for irrigation.

b) To pay back the loan with high rate of interest.

c) To use the money for marriage or festivals.

4. State the importance of growing more than one crop on a piece of land. (CBSE 2014)

Ans: The importance of growing more than one crop on a piece of land is:

a) It retains the fertility of the soil.

b) It generates employment for many people throughout the year.

c) It benefits the farmers economically.

5. What can be done to increase the non-farm activities in the Indian village? (CBSE 2016)

6. Describe three features of small-scale manufacturing as non-farming activity in Palampur. (CBSE 2014)

a) Small-scale manufacturing in Palampur is carried out to supplement the earning of the people.

The features of small-scale manufacturing in Palampur are:

a) They are organized on very small scale & employ simple methods of production like simple machines,
equipment & tools.

b) Raw materials used by small-scale manufacturing are generally locally available.

c) They are generally organized at home family labour.

d) These industries sell their products locally or in nearby villages.

7. What is the aim of production? State any four requirements for production. (CBSE 2015,16)

8. What is land? Suggest any three ways to sustain land. (CBSE 2010,11)

9. How can you say that the distribution of land is unequal in Palampur? (HOTS)

Or

How is land distribution amongst the farmers of Palampur? Explain. (CBSE 2011)

Or Describe the distribution of land among farmers in Palampur. CBSE 2014)