RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Rural Development& Agriculture

• Agriculture, with a maximum share of the rural economy, has grown at a meager rate of 2.7% in the last fifty years. During 2007-12, agriculture output has grown by 3.2%.
• The share of the agriculture sector to GDP was on a decline and there has been increasing in the share of the industrial and service sector. However, the population dependent on the agricultural sector did not show any significant change.
• Moreover, after the economic reforms of 1991, the growth rate of the agriculture sector decelerated to 3% p.a. during 1991-2012, which was lower than the earlier years.

Meaning of Rural Development

Definition: Rural Development refers to the continuous and comprehensive socio-economic process, of attempting to improve all aspects of rural life.

• In India, agriculture is the major source of livelihood in the rural sector, with more than two-thirds of India's population depending on it. Therefore, development in agriculture will contribute to the betterment of rural areas and rural people. However, the term rural development includes not only agricultural development, but it involves all those aspects, which improve the quality of life of people. It aims at improving the economic and social conditions of people living in villages.
• Rural people account for about 34% of the total population. However, they have always lagged much behind the overall progress of the economy.
• In order to overcome this undesirable trend, special programs for rural development began to be designed in the seventies, in addition to provisions of the Five-Year Plans of the country.

Process of Rural Development

• Development of Human Resources: The quality of the human resource needs to be improved through the following measures:
  • Proper attention to literacy (specifically on female literacy), education and skill development; and
  • Better Health facilities for physical growth.
• Development of Infrastructure: It involves:
  • Improvement in electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing and transport facilities (including the construction of village roads and feeder roads to nearby highways);
  • Better facilities for agriculture research and extension and information dissemination.
• Land Reforms: It includes the following objectives:
  • Elimination of exploitation in land relations;
  • Actualization of the goal of 'land to the tiller';
  • Improvement of socio-economic conditions of rural poor by widening their land base;
  • Increasing agricultural productivity and production.
• Alleviation of Poverty: Around 30% of the total population is still below the poverty line. So, there is a serious need for taking serious steps for alleviation and bringing significant improvement in living conditions of weaker sections. –
• Development of the productive resources of each locality to enhance opportunities for employment (particularly other than farming).