The Story of Village Palampur Part 1

ECONOMICS
DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL RUBY PARK, KOLKATA

CLASS IX
SESSION 2022-23
ECONOMICS STUDY MATERIAL
1. THE STORY OF VILLAGE PALAMPUR [PART I]
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PALAMPUR VILLAGE

In Palampur faming is the main activity. Several other activities such as small-scale
manufacturing, dairy transport etc. are also carried out. In these production activities various
resources combine to produce the desired goods and services.
Palampur is well connected with neighboring villages and towns. An all-weather road connects the
village to Raiganj and further on to the nearest small town. many kinds of transport such as
bullock carts, tongas, bogeys, motorcycles, jeeps, tractors and trucks are visible on ties road.
Palampur has about 450 families belonging to several different castes. 80 families of upper caste
own the majority of land. Their houses are quite large and made of brick with cement plastering.
The SCs (dalits) comprise one third of the population and live in one corner of the village and in
such smaller houses, some of which are of mud and straw. Most of the houses have electric
connections.
Electricity powers all the tubewells in the fields. Electricity is also used in various types of small
business.
Palampur has two primary schools and one high school. These is a primary health centre run by
the government and one private dispensary.
ORGANISATION OF PRODUCTION
Production of any type of goods or services required the services of four factors of Production.
Every production is organised by combining land, labour, physical capital and human
capital, which are known as factors of production.
a) First requirement is land and other natural resources such as water, forests and minerals.
b) Second requirement is labour. Some production activities require highly educated workers,
other activities required workers who can do manual work.
c) Third requirement is physical capital, i.e. the variety of inputs required at every stage
during production. Tools, machines, buildings can be used in production over many years,
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ECONOMICS
and are called fixed capital. Raw materials and money in hand are called working capital,
these are used up in production.
d) There is a fourth requirement too. One needs knowledge and enterprise to be able to put
together land, labor and physical capital and produce an output. this, these days is called
human capital. Every production is organised by combining land, labour, physical capital
and human capital, which are known as factors of production.
FARMING IN PALAMPUR
(a) Fixed land:
Farming is the main production activity in Palampur. 75 per cent of the working people are
dependent on farming for their livelihood. They could be farmers or farm labourers. 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. There exists no further scope to
increase farm production by bringing new land under cultivation.
(b) Ways to produce more from the same land:

All land is cultivated in Palampur. No land is idle.
Cropping seasons in Palampur
During the rainy (kharif) season, people grow jowar and bajra which are used as cattle feed.
Between Octobers to December, they cultivate potatoes.
In the winter (or the Rabi) season they sow wheat. A part of the land area is also devoted to
sugarcane which is harvested once every year.
The main reasons why farmers are able to grow three different crops in a year are:
(i) As a result of the coming of electricity in the Palampur village, people have greatly improved
the system of irrigation. They can now irrigate more lands quite effectively.
(ii) By multiple cropping more than one crop is grown on a piece of land during the same year.
All farmers in Palampur grow at least two main crops; many are growing potato as the third crop.
(iii) The other way is to use modern farming methods for higher yield. Higher yields are possible
from a combination of HYV seeds, irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides etc.
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What are the different ways of increasing production on the same piece of land? Use
example to explain.
Answer: The following ways can be followed to increase production on the same piece of land:
• Multiple Cropping: To grow more than one crop on the same piece of land during the year is
known as multiple cropping. It is the most common way to increase production. For example,
farmers in Palampur grow at least two crops and many farmers also grow third crop every year
from past fifteen to twenty years.
• Adoption of modern methods: By adopting modern agricultural methods like use of HYV
seeds, farmers can increase their production. They can use insecticide, pesticide, tubewells, etc. to
increase yield per acre. For example, farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, are increasingly
adopting these methods.
• Is it important to increase the area under irrigation? Why?

Irrigation helps to grow at least two crops in a year. Therefore, multiple cropping is possible.
Crops can be cultivated during the dry seasons also
Certain crops like sugarcane requires irrigation for greater productivity.
High yield of crops during Green Revolution was possible due to irrigation coupled with
other inputs like HYV seeds and chemical fertilisers.
(c) How Electricity helps the farmers in Palampur?

(i) The major impact of the spread of electricity in Palampur was to transform the system of
irrigation.
(ii) Electricity helped the farmers to shift from the traditional Persian wheels to electricity run
tube wells.
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ECONOMICS
Traditional Agriculture Modern farming method
• Till the mid-1960s, the seeds used in • Use of HYV seeds. Compared to the
cultivation were traditional ones traditional seeds, the HYV seeds promised
with relatively low yields. to produce much greater amounts of grain
• Traditional seeds needed less on a single plant. As a result, the same
irrigation. piece of land would now produce far
• Farmers used cow-dung and other larger quantities of food grains than was
natural manure as fertilizers. possible earlier.
• All these were readily available with • HYV seeds, however, needed plenty of
the farmers who did not have to buy water and also chemical fertilizers and
them. So, cost of farming / pesticides to produce best results.
production was less. • Farm machinery were used like tractors
and threshers, which made ploughing and
harvesting faster.
• High yields of wheat meant farmers now
had greater amounts of surplus wheat to
sell in the markets.
• Cost of farming increased as farmers now
had to buy a lot of inputs.
(d) Green Revolution:

Large increase in crop yields, leading to record food production started, in our country from 1960
onwards and marked a turning point in Indian agriculture which has led to green revolution in our
country. The great increase in the production of food grain crops especially the wheat crop in our
country during the last 30 years is called Green Revolution. This is because a sort of revolution
had taken place in Indian agriculture leading to enormous food grain production and
unprecedented greenery of crops everywhere.
It is because of the green revolution that our country has become self-sufficient in food production
and even buffer stocks of food grains have been created for use in the times of natural calamities
like drought and floods.
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(e) Sustainable use of land:

land being a natural resource, it is necessary to be very careful in its use. The modern farming
methods have overused the land resource. Environmental resources like soil fertility and
groundwater are built up over many years. Once destroyed, it is very difficult to restore them.
Green Revolution is associated with many problems associated with over use of land resources.
• In many areas, Green Revolution is associated with the loss of soil fertility due to
increased use of chemical fertilisers.
• Continuous use of groundwater for tube well irrigation has reduced the water-table below
the ground.
• Chemical fertilizers may escape from the soil and pollute groundwater, rivers and lakes.
• Chemical fertilizers can also kill bacteria and other micro-organisms in the soil. This
means some time after their use; the soil will be less fertile than ever before.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
These questions should be written in rough note book. The answers will be
discussed in class. Omly after that these questions may be written in fair in
classwork notebook. But first try to find the answer yourself.
1. What is the difference between multiple cropping and modern farming method?
2. Modern farming methods require the farmer to start with more cash than before. Why?
3. What are the sources of irrigation in Palampur?
4. Why is the cost of cultivation increasing in Punjab?
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ECONOMICS

DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL RUBY PARK, KOLKATA

1. THE STORY OF VILLAGE PALAMPUR [PART I]

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PALAMPUR VILLAGE

(b) Ways to produce more from the same land:

• Is it important to increase the area under irrigation? Why?

(c) How Electricity helps the farmers in Palampur?

Traditional Agriculture Modern farming method

(d) Green Revolution:

(e) Sustainable use of land:

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