Rural Development notes UPSC

 RURAL DEVELOPMENT 

Mahatma Gandhi once said “The real progress of India did not mean simply the growth and expansion of industrial urban centre but mainly the development of the village”.

Why significance to rural development when we see fast growing cities and large industries with modern information technology hubs ?

- It is because more than 2/3 of India’s population depends on agriculture; 1/4 of rural India still lives in abject poverty; hence developed rural is the real progress.

What is Rural Development ?

Rural development in India is the overall progress in the economic and social conditions of Indians residing in rural areas. For the development of rural India, the development of its human resource living in such area is essential. Development of  Human Resource can be done by focusing on:

• Literacy: More specifically female literacy, education and skill development.
• Health: Both sanitation and public health
• Land reforms
• Development of the productive resources
• Infrastructure Development: electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, transport facilities, facilities for agricultural research.
• Access to productive employment opportunity (enough salary, wages so that he/she can live above poverty line)

Why Agriculture Sector’s contribution to GDP is declining ? 

During 2023-24 Gross Value Added (GVA) for agriculture and allied activities grew at just 1.4%. Because of the decline in the public investment since 1991 (Industrial Revolution).

Credit and Marketing in Rural Areas 

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), 1982 comes into picture to coordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.

The Institutional structure of rural banking today consists of a set of multi-agency institutions (2019-20):

1. Commercial Banks                                          76.8%
2. Regional Rural Banks                                     11.8%
3. Cooperative and Land Development Banks   11.30%

Recently Self Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged to fill the gap in the formal credit system;

They promote thrift in small proportions by a minimum contribution from each member and from that pooled money and they offer this money in small installments at reasonable interest rate. Thus SHGs creating micro-credit programs.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana :

It is a financial inclusion initiative launched by the Government of India in August 2014. The scheme aims to provide affordable financial services, such as bank accounts, credit, insurance, and pensions, to every citizen, especially the underprivileged. Key features include: 

•       Zero balance bank accounts

• Accidental insurance coverage

• Overdraft facility after 6 months

• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for subsidies

Benefits:

• Holders will get 1-2 lakhs of accidental insurance.
• Overdraft facility upto ₹10,000.
• Old age pensions
• No need to keep minimum bank balance.

This lead to open more than 40 crore people opening bank accounts. 

Agricultural Market System 

• Agriculture marketing is a process that involves the assembling, storage, processing, transportation, packaging, grading and distribution of different agricultural commodities across the country.
• 10% produce wasted due to lack of storage.

Four measures to improve marketing aspects: 

• Regulation of markets to create orderly and transparent marketing conditions.
• Provision of physical infrastructure facilities like road, railway, godowns, warehouse, cold storage, etc.
• Cooperative marketing, in realising fair prices for farmers product.
• Assurance of policy instrumenta like MSP for agriculture product, Maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by FCI, distribution of food grains and sugar through PDS.

It aims at protecting the income of the farmers and food grains at subsidised rates to poor. 

Diversification into Productive activities 

• Change in cropping pattern. 
• Non-Agricultural activities (As agriculture is already overcrowded).
• Shift from agriculture to other allied activities (livestock, poultry,fishery).
• Sub-sectors like; Agro-processing industries, leather industries, tourism, etc.
• Animal Husbandry: Mixed crop livestock farming system- cattle, goats, fowl. It increase in stability of income, food security, etc. 

Milk production:

It is increased by 10 times from 1951-2016. ''Operation Flood'' leads to all farmers pool their milk produced (based on quality) and sent to Urban centre through co-operatives. Largest milk producers are Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan. 

Fisheries: 

Production source- 65% (Inland), 35% (Sea & Oceans). It accounts for 0.9% of total GDP. Major producing states are West-Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu. Out of all production 60% produce is exported and 40% used in internal market.

Horticulture: 

• India is blessed with a varrying climate and soil conditions.
• Crops such as fruits, vegetable, tuber crops, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants. 
• It contributes to 1/3rd of the volume of agriculture and 6% of GDP.
• India is the 2nd largest producer of fruits and vegetables. 

Sustainable Development and Organic Farming 

1. Conventional Farming: It relies on chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides, etc.
2. Organic Farming: It is a whole system of farming that restores, maintains and enhances the ecological balance (organic food comes with green status and higher price of 10-100% more than conventional ones).

Benefits of Organic Farming:

• It offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural inputs (HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) with locally produced in cheap rates.
• As it has higher demand in foreign, so it will generate more income when exported.
• More nutritional value.

Issues:

• Need for appropriate agriculture policy to promote organic farming.
• Yields from organic farming are less than modern agricultural farming.
• Small farmers find difficult to adapt large scale production.
• Shorter shelf life than sprayed produce.

Conclusion:

• Greater need to make rural areas more vibrant through diversification into dairying, poultry, fisheries, vegetables and fruits and linking up the rural production centers with the urban and foreign (export) markets to get higher returns on the investment for the products.
• Infrastructure elements like credit and marketing, farmer friendly agricultural policies.
• A constant appraisal and dialogue between farmer's group and state agricultural departments are essential to realise the full potential of the sector.