We know that poverty is very high in India. And that too especially in rural areas where the main source of livelihood is agriculture. More than 2/3rd of India's population is dependent on agriculture. And agriculture has not become productive enough to suffice for so many people. That is why it is said that India's real development will happen only when village development i.e. rural development is given attention. So in this chapter we will read about rural development. If you have not seen the videos of the previous chapters, there is a link to the playlist in the description, you can watch it from there. First let us understand what rural development means. This means focusing on things in rural areas that lead to overall development of the economy there. Like human resource means education, healthcare, skills, development of all these. Which we read in the previous chapter. Apart from this, pay attention to research and development related to infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation, transport, road connectivity, agriculture . To improve the living conditions of those who are poor and to provide them job opportunities. The basic idea of all of them is to take such steps that the resources there are used properly and productivity increases. People should not be limited only to farming but they should also have opportunities for non-farm activities. Like food processing industries, for example making chips from potatoes. This is food processing. So now we will discuss some crucial aspects of rural India like credit and marketing system, agriculture, diversification and organic farming. Let us look at these three one by one. Credit and Marketing in rural areas. Credit means loan or financial support and marketing means making the product easily available to consumers. Why is credit required? Suppose if a farmer sows grains today, he will get income when he sells them after production. So this time is quite long. So in the meantime there are expenses like fertilizer, seeds, machines or other family expenses like marriage, death or any festival. For all this the farmer requires money. Now if the farmer is poor then it is obvious that he will not have that much savings. Earlier, the big money lenders used to exploit the poor farmers a lot. Loans were given at high interest rates and the poor farmer was not able to repay them. Then he used to take loan. By doing this he got trapped in a debt trap. Major change came in 1969. India adopted social banking and multi agency approach to meet the credit need in rural areas. Social banking means such a banking approach in which the focus is on the welfare of society and community and not just on profit and multi agency approach means such a system in which different institutions like commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperative societies will all work together. So that it becomes easier for people in rural areas to take loans . In 1982, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development i.e. NABARD was set up. Who is the head of the entire Rural Banking sector and regulates them. Commercial banks like SBI, HDFC come under rural banking sector . Regional rural banks, cooperative banks and land development banks all work to provide loans at cheap rates in rural areas. Apart from this, self help groups also have a big role. From the name itself it appears that there is a group for self-help. In this, ten to twenty people from the same village form a group of their own, generally women. And save a little money regularly . And when any member in the group is in need, they give him a loan, this is called micro financing or micro credit programme. In case of taking loan from the bank, some collateral i.e. security has to be kept. But this is not the case with SHGs. And the rate of interest also reduces. Kudumbashree is a self helf group from Kerala whose main focus is poverty reduction. And it is quite successful. Improvement in rural banking was very beneficial. Like it became easier for farmers to take loans. Farm production, income and Employment also increased. But there are still some problems. Except commercial banks, other banks could not develop the culture of deposit mobilization. How does the bank work? We deposit money on which the bank gives us interest, and the bank loans the same money to others, and charges interest from them. So for the bank to function well it is necessary that the deposits be high and people return the loan on time. This is called deposit mobilization. People in rural areas do not make as much long term savings, due to which deposits are less. And the rate of default in agriculture loan is also very high. The reason for which is that agriculture is mainly dependent on monsoon. If the monsoon is not right then the crop is not good, and the farmer is not able to repay the loan. If the loan is too high, sometimes the government has to waive the loan. Due to this the bank suffers a lot of loss. The solution to this is that it is suggested that the bank should not only focus on giving loan but also on building a good relationship with the borrower . Farmers will also have to develop the habit of thrift and the habit of using financial resources efficiently . Habit of thrift means spending and saving less than earnings. Next now let us understand the agricultural market system. Any product, food, grains, vegetables, fruits, how it will reach different places depends on the market system. Agriculture marketing includes assembling, storage, processing, transportation, packaging, distribution, all this. Before Independence, when farmers used to sell their produce to traders, they faced a lot of problems. For example, traders would sometimes make deliberate mistakes in weighing and sometimes in the accounts. Farmers did not have knowledge of the market price, due to which they often had to sell at low prices. They did not have the storage facility so that they could sell it later at the right price instead of selling it now. Still, more than 10 percent of farm produce goes waste due to lack of proper storage. Four steps were taken to improve marketing. Firstly, rules and regulations were made for the rural market so that there is transparency in the process. Secondly, physical infrastructure facilities like roads, railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storage, all these were improved. However, it still needs a lot of improvement. The third is cooperative marketing. In this, many farmers come together and market their agricultural produce. With this, small farmers get a market, their costs also reduce and they can also bargain with traders, thereby getting the right price. The most popular example of cooperative marketing is Amul, it is a cooperative of millions of dairy farmers in India . And it has a big contribution in making India the world's highest milk producer. Fourth is to fix some policies like fixing the minimum support price, so that the income of the farmer is assured. Maintaining buffer stock of wheat and rice and distributing food grains among the poor people through the public distribution system. What happens is that the food corporation of India buys grains from farmers at MSP, mostly wheat and rice. Stores it and distributes it among the poor people through PDS at a subsidized rate , two-three rupees per kg. There has been a lot of benefit from government intervention in the agriculture market, but one argument is that if farmers do maximum commercial farming and there is very little government intervention, then the income of the farmers will increase and they will benefit a lot. Commercialization of farming means making farming a business. Not just for self consumption but to grow such crops which have demand in the market so that the profit is more. Examples of commercial crops like sugarcane, cotton, jute. And the second argument is that government intervention is also necessary for the benefit of small farmers. An alternative to the market is that if farmers sell their goods not to traders and wholesalers, but to direct consumers. So that will increase their income. 'Apni Mandi' of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and 'Rythu Bazaar' of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are good examples of this. Nowadays, big companies also deal directly with farmers on contract basis and demand the quality product they want. And also provides seeds and inputs to farmers . However, companies generally contact only big farmers. There is still a question on how much benefit small farmers get from this. Next is, Diversification into productive activities. Many people in rural areas are dependent on agriculture. So diversification means that all people should not be dependent on the same type of work. This can happen in two ways. First, there should be a change in the cropping pattern, which means farming of not only wheat and rice but also other crops, and second, agriculture is already a very crowded sector, so people will shift to poultry, fisheries or other non- agricultural activities like food processing industries, leather industries, tourism. , shift on all of these. Animal husbandry is quite common among farmers. Often, along with farming, farmers raise cows, buffaloes, goats, chickens etc. This provides them with an alternative source of income. The performance of the Indian dairy sector between 1951 and 2016 has been very good. Meanwhile, milk production increased almost ten times. The credit for which goes to Operation Flood which is also called white revolution. This was a dairy development program in which milk producers formed cooperatives and did marketing and selling together. We saw an example from this time, Amul. Fisheries have also developed a lot in India. Fish production contributes 0.9 percent to GDP. And states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, all these are major fish producing states. But there is a need for a lot of improvement in this sector because most of the families in it are very poor, underemployment is very high, and the literacy rate is also very low. Due to which they cannot shift to other sectors. So for improvement it is necessary to form more self-help groups and cooperative societies so that there is no problem of credit and income also increases. Apart from this, over fishing is also a concern. Because this negatively impacts the marine ecosystem. Another sector is horticulture. Fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal plants, spices, cultivation of all these is called horticulture. It contributes about 6 percent to GDP. To further improve this sector, we will have to further develop technology and infrastructure. Like electricity, cold storage, linkage with market, all these will have to be invested. Apart from all this, IT sector can also help a lot in development. Like in climate and weather prediction. With the help of e-commerce and online marketplace, farmers can be connected to a bigger market. Drone, sensor, data analysis, all these can be used. This will also generate employment in most rural areas. So IT sector can also play a very crucial role in development . Next is organic farming. In conventional agriculture, chemical based fertilizers and pesticides are used a lot which are very harmful. Due to this, the quality of soil deteriorates, ground water gets polluted and when we eat the same food, it is harmful for us too. Therefore there is a need for such technology which is eco friendly. And one such technology is organic farming. In this, instead of using chemicals, natural fertilizers are used. Like cow dung. So this led to food production and the environment was not harmed. That is why it is also sustainable. It has other benefits too, like if the demand for export of organic crops is good then the income from there is also good. In comparison to conventional crop, it also has more nutritional value, which means it is more healthy. If labor is used more in this then it will also generate employment. But for all this it is necessary that a policy be made to promote organic farming. Farmers should be made aware of this and they should be helped to adapt to this new technology. Now, although there are so many benefits, there are also some demerits like in the initial years, organic farming is costly as compared to conventional farming and also produces less crop. So small farmers may face difficulty in adapting to it. Secondly, preservatives are not used in organic produce, which is a good thing, but due to the absence of preservatives, it spoils quickly. So the conclusion is that rural India will develop only when some big changes are made. Credit and marketing system and infrastructure will have to be strengthened. Such policies will have to be made which will be in the interest of the farmers. Diversity will have to be brought in the employment of rural population, which means there will be a shift from agriculture to non-farm activities. And along with all this development, the environment will also have to be taken care of. So that this development is sustainable.