1st PUC Economics Question Bank Chapter 6 Rural Development

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Karnataka 1st PUC Economics Question Bank Chapter 6 Rural Development

1st PUC Economics Rural Development TextBook Questions and Answers

Question 1.
What do you mean by rural development? Bring out the key issues in rural development?
Answer:
Rural development is a comprehensive term. It essentially means a plan of action for the development of areas which are lagging behind in socio-economic development.
The key issues in rural development are:

1. Human Capital Formation:
Investment should be made in education, health and technical skills development to make people more efficient and able to do work.

2. Development of production resources:
The rural people are mainly dependent on agriculture to earn their livelihood that usually suffers from low productivity, lack of infrastructure and disguised unemployment. Therefore, efforts must be made towards development of alternative occupation through available resources.

3. Land reforms:
Land reforms with technical reforms allow the farmers to use modem techniques and methods which increase the productivity and aggregate volume of farm output. Land reforms also lead to efficient and optimum use of land enabling large scale production.

4. Development of infrastructure:
Infrastructure is the basic level for all kind development such as electricity, irrigation, bank, credit, transportation, development of markets, etc.,

5. Alleviation of poverty:
Special measures should be taken to tackle poverty and bringing about significant sections of the people emphasing access to productive employment opportunities

Question 2.
Discuss the importance of credit in rural development?
Answer:
Credit in rural development is important in the following ways:
1. To realise higher productivity in agriculture adequate credit is required by agriculturist.

2. The timely availability of credit helps in enhancing the confidence of the farmer as there is time gap between crop sowing and realisation of income after production.

3. Credit from Government agencies helps in relieving the farmers from the burden of local money lenders and traders. That provides strong base for the efficient growth of agriculture sector.

4. More than two thirds of India’s population depends on agriculture. It is only the credit and marketing facilities that can help them to meet not only their personal expenditures (marriages, ceremonies, other rituals, etc.,) but also productive expenditures.

5. Credit enables the farmers to have faith in themselves as Indian agriculture, even after fifty-nine years of Independence, is still dependent on the vagaries of monsoon.

Question 3.
Explain the role of Micro-Credit in meeting credit requirements of the poor?
Answer:
Micro-credit helps the fanners in the following manner in meeting their credit requirements:

1. It helps in empowerment of women by providing credit for their consumption purposes.
2. It helps in promoting the small savings which can be pooled and utilised in cases of emergencies.
3. It helps in saving the agriculturalists from the exploitation of money lenders and traders.
4. It provides loans to farmers at reasonable interest rates repays in small industries.

Question 4.
Explain the steps taken by the Government in developing rural markets?
Answer:
The Government has taken following measures to improve the rural markets:

1. Introduction of the concept of regulated markets:
The Government has tried to regulate the markets to create an orderly and transparent marketing condition

2 Provision of Physical infrastructure facilities:
The Government has tried to provide infrastructure facilities to farmers like roads, railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storage, and processing units. The current Government infrastructure facilities are quite inadequate to meet the growing demand and need to be improved.

Question 5.
Answer:
Agricultural diversification is essential or sustainable livelihood because:

1. It helps in diversification of crop production which enables the farmers to earn money throughout the year.
2. It facilitates shifting of workers from agriculture to other allied activities like animal husbandry poultry, fishing, horticulture, etc.,
3. Diversification helps in reducing the risk of agriculturists and enables them to get various opportunities to get productive sustainable livelihood options.
4. Diversification is essential to provide supplementary gainful employment and in realising higher levels of income for rural people to overcome poverty.

Question 6.
Critically evaluate the role of the rural banking system in the process of rural development in India?
Answer:
Rural Banking has played a crucial role in the process of rural development in India.

1. The National Bank for Agricultural and Rural development (NABARD) has made significant progress in the field of rural credit.

2. It cannot be denied that institutional credit has freed the farmers from the trap of money lenders.

3. But on the other hand, institutional credit is not free from defiencies. The rural or institutional credit has invariably been associated with securing or collateral. Consequently, a substantial number of farmers can’t avail of credit. Also, commercial banks failed to encourage the habit of thrift among farmers.

4. In addition to this, the leniency on the part of the Government to collect taxes was another set back in rural banking. This further led to the emergence of the feeling among the farmers of not repaying the borrowed amount. This increases the defaulter’s rate and led to financial unfeasibility for the rural banks.

Question 7.
What do you mean by agricultural marketing?
Answer:
The mechanism through which different agricultural goods like grains, vegetables, and fruits reach different places is known as agricultural marketing.

Question 8.
Mention some obstacles that hinder the mechanism of agricultural marketing?
Answer:
Some of the obstacles that hinder the mechanism of agricultural marketing are:

1. Farmers suffer from faulty weighing and manipulate accounts.
2. Due to misinformation about market prices and conditions, farmers are forced to sell their product at lower prices.
3. The farmers lack access to proper storage facilities to store their produce for future sell at better price.
4. The farmers cannot avail agricultural credit, leading to their exploitation by the money lenders.

Question 9.
What are the alternative channels available for agricultural marketing? Give some examples.
Answer:
Previously, farmers used to sell their products to traders who used to exploit them by faulty weighing and manipulation of accounts and also paid lower price to the farmers. If farmers directly sell their product to consumers, it increases their incomes- due to elimination of intermediaries.

Question 10.
Distinguish between ‘Green Revolution’ and the ‘Golden Revolution’?
Answer:

Green Revolution	Golden Revolution
1. The combined use of seeds and increased use of fertilisers and develo­ped irrigation of production of food grains is called as Green Revolution	1. The rapid growth in the production of the cortical-cultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, etc. is known as Golden Revolution
2. It led to increase in the production of food grains, especially rice and wheat.	2. It led to increase in production of fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, etc.
3. As a result of this revolution India became self-sufficient in the production of wheat and rice	3. As a result of this revolution, India became a world leader in the production of mangoes, bananas, coconut & spices.

Question 11.
Do you think various measures taken by the government to improve agricultural marketing are sufficient? Discuss.
Answer:
Government has adopted various measures for improving agricultural marketing such as regulation of markets, provision of physical infrastructure, co-operative marketing and policy measures like MSP, etc. But even after these measures taken by the government, agricultural markets are still predominated by moneylenders, rural political elites, big merchants and rich fanners which are doing private trade.

The current infrastructure facilities are inadequate to meet the growing demand and need to be improved further, co-operative are also suffering from problems like inadequate coverage of farmer members, lack of appropriate link between marketing and processing co-operatives and inefficient financial management.

Question 12.
Explain the role of non-farm employment in promoting rural diversification?
Answer:
The agricultural sector in India is overcrowded, a major portion of labour force needs to find alternate employment opportunities in other non-farm sectors. Diversification towards non-farm sectors not only to reduce the risk from agriculture sector but also to provide productive sustainable livelihood options to rural people.

Non-farm economy has several segments in it;

some posses dynamic linkages that permit healthy growth while others are in subsistence, low productivity propositions. The dynamic sub-sectors include agro-processing industries, food processing industries, leather industry, tourism, etc.,

Those sector which have the potential but seriously lack of infrastructure and other supports include traditional home based industries like pottery, crafts, handlooms, etc., Majority of rural women find employment in agriculture while men generally look for non-farm employment. In recent times, women have also begun looking for non-farm jobs.

Question 13.
Being out the importance of animal husbandry, fisheries, and horticulture as a source of diversification.
Answer:
Animal husbandry:
The animal husbandry i.e, livestock rearing includes:

• cattle breeding
• goats
• fowl rearing etc.,

Livestock production provides stable income, food security, fuel and nutrition for the family in rural areas. In India, more than 70 million small and marginal farmers have got alternate livelihood options from animal husbandry. The poultry accounts for the largest share.

1. Fisheries:-
The fishing community regards the water body as mother. The major sources of life for fishing community are

• rivers
• lakes
• oceans
• natural and
• aquatic ponds.

In India, after progressive increase in budget-allocation, we can see development of fisheries. About 49% of fish production comes from inland sources and remaining from ocean and sea. Among the states

• Kerala
• Gujarath
• Maharashtra and
• Tamil Nadu are the major producers of marine products.

Horticulture :
It is one of the types of farming in which cultivation of land is undertaken to grow crops like:

• fruits
• vegetables
• flower
• medicinal plants
• spices and plantation of crops.

India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables. The economic condition of many farmers engaged in horticulture has improved and horticulture has became a means of improving livelihood for many poor families of rural India.

Flower harvesting, nursery maintenance, hybrid seed production, and tissue culture, propagation of fruits and flowers and food processing are highly rememerative employment for women labourers in India.

Question 14.
‘Information technology plays a very’ significant role in achieving sustainability. development and food security’ comment.
Answer:
Information technology (IT) plays a very significant role in achieving sustainable development and food security. Government can predict areas of food insecurity and vulnerability using appropriate information and software tools so that action can be taken to prevent or reduce the livelihood of an emergency.

It also has positive impact on the agriculture sector as it can disseminate information regarding emerging technologies and its application, price, weather, and soil conditions for growing different crops, etc., Though It is by itself, no catalyst of change but it can act as a tool for releasing the creative potential and knowledge embedded in the society.

It also has potential of employment generation in rural areas. Thus, it can be said that it plays a vital role in assuring food security and sustainable development in India.

Question 15.
What is organic farming and how does it promote sustainable development.
Answer:
Organic farming is a whole system of farming that restores maintains and enhances the ecological balance. In other words, this system of farming relies upon the use of organic inputs for cultivation.

The tradition of farming includes the use of chemical fertilisers, toxic pesticides, etc., that harms the ecosystem drasticates so this type of farming is practised to produce toxic-free food for the consumers while simultaneously maintaining the fertility of soil and contributing the ecological balance.

This type of fanning enables eco-friendly sustainable economic development. So for unpolluted environment and sustainable development, organic farming is the answer. Organic farming helps in getting safe, healthy and nutritious food.

Question 16.
Identify the benefits and limitations of organic farming?
Answer:
a. Benefits of organic farming are:

1. It offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural inputs with locally produced organic inputs that are cheaper and thereby generate good returns on investment.
2. The use of chemical fertilizers leads to erosion of soil fertility. As organic farming discards the use of chemical fertilisers, this farming is practiced to produce non-toxic food for the consumers without degrading soil fertility.
3. Organically grown food has more nutritions value than chemical farming thus providing us with healthy food.
4. Since organic farming requires more labour input than conventional farming, India will find organic farming an attractive proposition.
5. It also generates income through exports as the demands for organically grown crops is on a rise.

b. Limitations of organic farming:

1. Organic farming offers lesser yield that conventional farming. Therefore, the productivity of organic farming is lower than that of conventional farming.

2. The popularity of organic fanning depends on the awareness and willingness of the farmers . to adopt this technology. Due to lower productivity, farmers lack initiative to adopt organic farming.

3. The inadequate infrastructure and problem of marketing are the major concerns that need to be addressed to promote organic farming.

4. Organic farming offers lesser yield than conventional findings, this farming is not financially viable for the small and marginal land-holdings farmers.

Question 17.
Enlist some problems faced by farmers during the initial years of organic farming?
Answer:
Following are the problems freed by farmers during the initial years of organic farming:

1. The percentage of produced goods remains less as compared to chemically produced goods.
2. It is expensive hence it is impossible for small and medium scale farmers to use it on a large scale.
3. It is unsuitable for seasonal farming.

1st PUC Economics Rural Development Additional Questions and Answers

1st PUC Economics Rural Development Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
Which is the major source of livelihood in the rural sector?
Answer:
Agriculture is the major source of livelihood in rural sector.

Question 2.
Define rural development?
Answer:
Rural development is a comprehensive term. It focuses on action for the development of areas which are lagging behind in the overall development of the village community.

Question 3.
What are two types of purposes for which Indian farmers require credit?
Answer:
Indian farmers require credit for :

1. Productive purposes.
2. Non-productive purposes.

Question 4.
Write the meaning of rural credit?
Answer:
The credit availed to the rural people for both agricultural and non-agricultural activities can be termed as rural credit.

Question 5.
Expand NABARD?
Answer:
NABARD – National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Question 6.
What are the alternative channels available for agricultural marketing? Give examples? or Give an example for alternative market?
Answer:
The examples for alternative market are:
Rythara Santhe in Karnataka, Rythu Bazaar in Andra Pradesh (vegetables and fruit markets), Apni Mandi – Punjab, Vzhavar sandies – Tamil Nadu.

Question 7.
Write the meaning of organic farming?
Answer:
It is that farming which relies on crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological post for growing crops. It is whole system of farming that restores, maintains and enhances the ecological balance.

Question 8.
What is Green Revolution?
Answer:
Green revolution is a spectacular increase in the production of food grains during 1967-68 due to scientific methods of cultivation.

Question 9.
What do you mean by White Revolution / Operation of Flood?
Answer:
The white revolution or operation flood refers to a spectacular increase in the production of milk.

Question 10.
What is the Blue Revolution?
Answer:
A remarkable increase in the production of fish and other aquatic products is called as Blue Revolution.

Question 11.
What do you mean by Golden Revolution?
Answer:
A remarkable increase in the production of fruits is called as Golden Revolution.

Question 12.
Mention any four reasons for slow growth of rural economy?
Answer:
The four causes for slow development of rural economy are as follows:

1. poor infrastructural facilities
2. lack of alternative employment opportunities
3. seasonal unemployment
4. rural indebtedness
5. illiteracy.

Question 13.
Which bank is established to co-ordinate rural credit system in India?
Answer:
NABARD – National Bank for agriculture and rural development.

Question 14.
When did NABARD come into existence?
Answer:
NABARD came into existence in the year 1982.

Question 15.
What is the main objective of NABARD?
Answer:
The main objective of NABARD as an apex body is to co-ordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.

Question 16.
Expand RRB’s?
Answer:
RRB’s – Regional Rural Banks.

Question 17.
Expand SHGS?
Answer:
SHGs – Self Help Groups.

Question 18.
Expand FCI?
Answer:
Food Corporation of India established in 1965.

Question 19.
Expand KMF?
Answer:
KMF – Karnataka Milk Federation.

Question 20.
Name the two categories of agricultural finance (credit) in India?
Answer:

1. Non-institutional sources &
2. Institutional sources.

Question 21.
Name the policy instruments as measures initiated by Government for improvement of agricultural marketing system?
Answer:
The policy instruments are:

1. Assurance of minimum support price for 21 agriculture products.
2. Maintenance of buffer stock of wheat and rice by FCI
3. Distribution of food grains and sugar through PDS (Public Distribution System)

Question 22.
Name the main sources of institutional agricultural finance in India?
Answer:
The main sources of institutional agricultural finance in India are:

1. Co-operative sendees
2. Regional Rural Banks (RRB’s)
3. Commercial Banks
4. Self help groups
5. NABARD

1st PUC Economics Rural Development Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
Who is called as ‘Father of White Revolution’?
Answer:
The ‘Dr. Varghese Kurian’ is called the ‘father of White Revolution’.

Question 2.
Name the sources of life for Fishing Community?
Answer:
The major sources of life for Fishing Community are :

1. Rivers
2. Lakes
3. Oceans
4. Natural and aquatic ponds.

Question 3.
Why do rural youths move towards urban areas?
Answer:
The reasons why rural youths move towards cities are as follows:

1. To get alternative jobs in industries
2. To find jobs in contribution work and sendee sectors
3. Inadequate infrastructure in rural areas
4. Uncertainty of rainfall
5. Complexities in agricultural work

Question 4.
Write short note on ‘Animal Husbandry’?
Answer:
In India the farming community uses the mixed crop livestock as shown in figure below.

1. Livestock production provides increased stability in income food security, transport, fuel and nutrition for the family without disrupting other food producing activities.

2. Today livestock sector alone provides alternate livelihood options to over 70 million small and marginal farmers including landless labourers.

3. A significant number of women also find employment in the livestock sector among different categories of livestock as shown in chart above, Indian diary sector has performed well over the last three decades. Milk production in the country has increased by more than four times during 1960-2002.

Question 5.
When and why NABARD was set up?
Answer:
There is quite a wide gap between the crop sowing and realisation of income after production hence, the farmers have to borrow money from various sources to meet their initial investments on seeds, fertilisers, implements and other family expenses (like marriage – death, religious ceremonies, etc.,).

At the time of independence, farmers were exploited by local money lenders and traders. To save the farmers from the exploitation of money lenders and traders, the Government adopted the concept of social banking and multi-agency approach during the year 1969.

In a to this attempt, it established National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1982 as an apex body to co-ordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.

Question 6.
Classify the following non-agricultural activities into

1. dynamic sub sector and
2. traditional household – based industries.

• Crafts
• Agro-processing industries
• Food processing industries
• Pottery
• Handloom
• Leather industries
• Tourism

Answer:
1. Dynamic sub sectors:

• Agro-processing industries
• Food processing industries
• Leather industries
• Tourism

2. Traditional household base industries:

• Crafts
• Pottery
• Handloom

Question 7.
Write down the weakness of agricultural marketing system prior to independence?
Answer:
The weaknesses of agriculture marketing system prior to independence:

1. There was absence of marketing information.
2. There were superfluous middleman and mal-practices
3. There was absence of grading and standardisation.
4. The weak financial position of the farmers forced to sell their products to the money lenders and middlemen.
5. There was faulty weighing.
6. The agricultural markets lacked storing facilities.

Question 8.
What does the institutional structure of rural banking today consist of?

OR

What do you mean by multi agency approach in rural banking?
Answer:
1. Multi-agency approach to rural banking:
Multi-agency approach to rural banking means that there are many institutional sources of rural credit.

2. Institutional sources of rural credit:
The institutional structure of rural banking today consists of:

1. Commercial Banks
2. Regional Rural Banks (RRB’s)
3. Co-operatives
4. Land Development Banks
5. Co-operative Credit Societies.

1st PUC Economics Rural Development Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
Explain four measures taken by the Government to improve agricultural marketing?
Answer:
The Government has taken various measures to improve agricultural marketing such as regulation of markets, development of infrastructure like cold storage, roads, railways and policy instruments but despite various attempts of the Government private trade pre-dominate agricultural markets.

Also, there are many obstacles in successful agricultural marketing:

1. It is found that farmers often fall prey to defecting weighing techniques and misappropriation of accounts.
2. Farmers lack knowledge of market prices and market conditions which forces them to sell their produce at a lower price.
3. Storage facilities are insufficient which forces the farmers to sell their produce at lower price right after marketing. Also, insufficient storage makes the crops valueable to pests and bad weather
4. There is lack of institutional sources of finance which forces the farmers to fall back on money lenders for obtaining credit.
5. Transportation facilities are insufficient as a result of which the farmers are unable to sell their produce at far off places.

Question 2.
Write down the problems associated with the use of fertilizer examine the need of organic farming?
Answer:
The ill effects of chemical fertilizers based farming. Following are the ill-effects of chemical based farming:

1. Heavy imports of fertilizers impose a huge burden on our balance of trade.

2. Continuous use of groundwater irrigation through tube wells has reduced the ground mater level much below. If groundwater resources are destroyed then it will be very difficult to restore them.

3. The use of chemical fertilizers will make the soil less fertile than even before. Its use led to the degradation of soil health. It is very much clear from the experience of farming in Punjab.

4. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is also responsible for health hazards and environmental pollution.