Summary
Introduction to village palampur
Palampur is well-connected with neighbouring villages and towns. Raiganj, a big village, is 3 kms from Palampur.
This village has about 450 families belonging to several different castes . The 80 upper caste families own the majority of land in the village. The SCs (dalits) comprise one third of the population and live in one corner of the village and in much smaller houses some of which are of mud and straw.
Palampur has two primary schools and one high school. There is a primary health centre run by the government and one private dispensary where the sick are treated.
Organisation of Production
There are four requirements for production of goods and services.
The first requirement is land, and other natural resources such as water, forests, minerals.
The second requirement is labour,i.e. people who will do the work. Some production activities require highly educated workers to perform the necessary tasks. Other activities require workers who can do manual work.
The third requirement is physical capital i.e the variety of inputs required at every stage during production. Tools and machines range from very simple tools such as a farmer’s plough to sophisticated machines such as generators, turbines, computers, etc. (b) Raw materials and money in hand: Production requires a variety of raw materials such as the yarn used by the weaver and the clay used by the potter.Raw materials and money in hand are called working capital. Unlike tools, machines and buildings, these are used up in production.
There is a fourth requirement too This these days is called human Every production is organised by combining land, labour, physical capital and human capital, which are known as factors of production.
Framing in Palampur
1. Land is fixed
Farming is the main production activity in Palampur. 75 per cent of the people who are working are dependent on farming for their livelihood Since 1960 in Palampur, there has been no expansion in land area under cultivation. By then, some of the wastelands in the village had been converted to cultivable land.
2. Is there a way one can grow more from the same land?
The main reason why farmers are able to grow three different crops in a year in Palampur is due to the well-developed system of irrigation. Electricity came early to Palampur. Its major impact was to transform the system of irrigation.
3. Will the land sustain?
In many areas, Green Revolution is associated with the loss of soil fertility due to increased use of chemical fertilisers. Also, continuous use of groundwater for tubewell irrigation has led to the depletion of the water-table We must take care of the environment to ensure future development of agriculture
4. How is land distributed between the farmers of Palampur?
In Palampur, about one third of the 450 families are landless, i.e. 150 families, most of them dalits, have no land for cultivation. Of the remaining families who own land, 240 families cultivate small plots of land less than 2 hectares in size
5. Who will provide the labour?
After land, labour is the next necessary factor for production. Farming requires a great deal of hard work. Small farmers along with their families cultivate their own fields. Medium and large farmers hire farm labourers to work on their fields.
6. The capital needed in farming
Most small farmers have to borrow money to arrange for the capital. They borrow from large farmers or the village moneylenders or the traders who supply various inputs for cultivation.The rate of interest on such loans is very high. They are put to great distress to repay the loan
7. Sale of Surplus Farm Products
The farmers have produced wheat on their lands using the three factors of production. The wheat is harvested and production is complete So it is the medium and large farmers who supply wheat to the market The traders at the market buy the wheat and sell it further to shopkeepers in the towns and cities.
Non-Farm Activities in Palampur
Only 25 per cent of the people working in Palampur are engaged in activities other than agriculture.
1. Dairy — the other common activity
Dairy is a common activity in many families of Palampur.
2. An example of small-scale manufacturing in Palampur