eChapters

Pre-Independence Rural Development Programmes

Rural development traces back its history to the seventeenth century when voluntary efforts to serve the mankind were initiated by a religious society of people known as ‘Friends’ or ‘Quakers’ in England, then the other parts of World including India. It aimed at providing services to mankind transcending bonds of religion, territory and culture. During the British period, the British government was never serious about the rural development. But, they acted under compelling situation like famines and economic distress. During 1800 to 1825, it was reported that there were five famines; during 1825 to 1850, two famines; during 1850 to 1875, six famines; and during 1875 to 1900, there were eighteen famines in different parts of the country. Famines forced the British government in to action. The Famine Commission of 1880, 1898, 1901, the Irrigation Committee of 1903, the Commission on Co-operation of 1915 and the Royal Commission on Indian Agriculture were the efforts of the Government to improve the economic condition of the common man, but seldom were the reports of the commissions implemented in right spirit. However, during these periods, the most active role in the field of rural development was played by the Christian missionaries who aimed at the all-round development of their Christian converts. In the year 1987, British Government heeding to the representation made by Manchester Cotton Supply Association established the Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce. But, this department did not do much related to agriculture development except the collection of agricultural statistics.

Planned Strategies for Rural Development in India

The Food and Agriculture Ministry appointed a Committee to examine the Grow More Food activities of the Government which were in implementation and to suggest measures for ensuring rapid expansion of agricultural production. The Grow More Food Campaign Inquiry Committee pointed out that there was imperative “Need of an organisation for intensive rural work which would reach every farmer and assist in the coordinated development of rural life as a whole similar in conception to the “extension” or “advisory’” services in the U.S.A., the U.K. and elsewhere.” One of the recommendations of the Committee was that an extension agency should be set up for rural work, which would reach every farmer and assist in the coordinated development of rural life. The Planning Commission set up the Government of India in 1950 to formulate the First Five Year Plan summarized the reasons for failure of the earlier efforts by the governmental and voluntary organisations as follows

Evolution of Panchayati Raj System in India

In January 1957, the Government of India appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Balwantray Mehta to examine the working of the Community Development Programme (1952) and the National Extension Service (1953), and to suggest measures for their better implementation. The committee expressed concern about the lack of participation of people in these programmes and made a string plea for devolution of power. The committee submitted its report in November 1957 and recommended the establishment of the scheme of ‘democratic decentralization’ through a three-tier system of local government from village to district Level-Gram Panchayat at village level, Panchayat Samiti at block level and Zilla Parisad at district level -which ultimately came to be known as Panchayati Raj in India. The recommendations of the committee were accepted by the National Development Council (NDC) in January 1958. The NDC did not insist on a single rigid pattern of panchayat raj system throughout the country but left it to the states to evolve their own patterns suitable to local conditions. But the basic principles and broad fundamentals of democratic decentralization remained identical throughout the country. Thus, the Panchayati Raj system came into existence in 1959 with two basic objectives. These were (1) democratic decentralization and (2) local participation in planned programmes. The new system of Panchayat Raj Institutions was first adopted in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in 1959, followed by Assam, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in 1960, Maharashtra in 1962, and Gujarat and West Bengal in 1963 and 1964 respectively. By the mid-sixties, the hype to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) gave way to a growing tendency of centralization and the PRIs descended to ground zero. To revive the working of PRIs, the Janata Government in 1977 appointed a committee headed by Ashok Mehta to study the functioning of PRIs and to suggest measures for improvement. The committee suggested a minor change in the Balwantray Mehta Scheme. Mehta (1978), in the Report of the Committee of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) identified three phases of Panchayati Raj in India

The immediate objective of the programme was to achieve rapid increase in food grain production to meet the food grain requirement of the country. The programme was implemented in the district having potential irrigation facilities with less prone to natural hazards. Integrated and intensive approaches were adopted to solve the problems of agriculture production in the areas which were more responsive to such production effort. The programme sought to achieve rapid increase in the level of agricultural production through a concentration of financial technical, extension and administrative resources. In the long run it aimed at a self - generating break through in productivity and raising the production potential by stimulating the human and physical process of change.

IADP was a demonstrational programme which showed how to increase production more rapidly on one hand and a path finding experimental programme which facilitated the development of new innovations, new ideas and procedures for wider adoption in agriculture development.

One of the major drawbacks of IADP was its neglect of the equity aspect of the development. Even though this drawback, the spectacular results in improved production yield obtained in IADP, prompted Government to extending the benefit of the programme to other districts of the country with less cost and reduced staff strength. This resulted in launching of the Intensive Agriculture Area Programme (IAAP) in 1964.

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), a programme for the self employment of rural poor was started from 01.04.1999 after restructuring the six erstwhile Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and its allied programmes, These were : IRDP, Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Toolkits in Rural Areas (SITRA) and Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY), and Million Wells Scheme (MWS). The basic objective of the SGSY was to bring the assisted poor families (Swarozgaris) above the Poverty Line by providing them income-generating assets through a mix of bank credit and governmental subsidy. The programme aimed at establishing a large number of micro enterprises in rural areas based on the ability of the poor and potential of each area.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Rationale of the Programme

A vast majority of the poor people in rural areas of the country depend mainly on the wages they earn through unskilled labour. They are often on threshold levels of subsistence and are vulnerable to the possibility of sinking from transient to chronic poverty, in the event of inadequate labour demand or in the face of unpredictable crises that may be general in nature like natural disaster or personal like ill-health, all of which adversely impact their employment opportunities. In a context of poverty & unemployment, wage employment programmes provide unskilled manual workers with short-term employment. The wage employment programmes provide income transfers to poor households during critical times and so also enable consumption smoothing specially during slack agricultural seasons or years. Durable assets created under these programmes have the potential to generate sustainable livelihood.

Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA)

Extension Reforms were introduced during 2005-06 by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India as a major intervention in addressing the constraints as observed in T & V and post T & V system by making the extension system farmer driven and farmer accountable through process and institutional reforms mechanism. The institutional mechanism in the form of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) at district level was pilot tested under Innovations in Technology Dissemination (ITD) component of National Agricultural

Technology Project (NATP) in seven states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and Punjab covering 4 districts in each State from 1998 to 2004. The key features of reforms are:

National Agriculture Development Programme/Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)

Economic reforms initiated since 1991 have put the Indian economy on a higher growth trajectory. Annual growth rate in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has accelerated from below 6 per cent during the initial years of reforms to more than 8 per cent in recent years. The Planning Commission in its approach paper to the Eleventh Five-Year-plan has stated that 9 per cent growth rate in GDP would be feasible during the Eleventh Plan period. However, Agriculture that accounted for more than 30 per cent of total GDP at the beginning of reforms failed to maintain its pre-reform growth. On the contrary, it witnessed a sharp deceleration in growth after the mid-1990s. This happened despite the fact that agricultural productivity in most of the states was quite low as it were, and the potential for the growth of agriculture was high. The GDP of agriculture increased annually at more than 3 per cent during the 1980s.

Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996 to 2001-02), India has been targeting a growth rate of more than 4 per cent in agriculture, but the actual achievement has been much below the target. More than 50 per cent of the workforce of the country depends upon agriculture for it’s livelihood and slow growth in Agriculture and allied sectors can lead to acute stress in the economy because a large proportion of population depend on this sector. A major cause behind the slow growth in agriculture is the consistent decrease in investments in the sector by the state governments. While public and private investments are increasing manifold in sectors such as infrastructure, similar investments are not forthcoming in Agriculture and allied sectors, leading to distress in the community of farmers, especially that of the small and marginal segment. Hence, the need for incentivising states that increase their investments in the Agriculture and allied sectors has been felt.

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) is a modified programme of erstwhile Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) of the Department of Land Resources. The scheme was launched during 2009-10. The programme is being implemented as per Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects 2008. The main objectives of the IWMP are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil erosion, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed areas.

ICAR Frontline Extension Programmes

It was recognized by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the early sixties that agriculture development requires interdisciplinary and multi institutional approach. The integrated functioning of agricultural research, education and extension was for the first time recognized as the cardinal principle of agricultural development system, and accordingly agricultural research, education and extension function were integrated in the ICAR institutes and State Agricultural Universities (SAU). ICAR established a Section of Extension Education at its headquarter in 1971, which was later renamed as Division of Agricultural Extension to promote the transfer the agricultural technologies through the ICAR-SAU system. The present position, as on 31.03.2020, of ICAR institutes, Central Agriculture Universities and SAUs are as follows:

Livestock Development Programmes/Schemes

Gausalas

Recognizing the potential of Gaushalas (about 10000) in the country which were engaged in rehabilitation of disowned cattle, the government of India in 1952 set up the Central Council of Govsamvardana (CCG). Some of these gaushalas were providing quality indigenous / crossbreds / heifers / bulls at many places like Nasik, UrliKanchan, Amirtsar, Indore and Ahmednagar. One gaushala at Bombay had completed a century of devoted work in 1986 and had established two institutes, one for research and another for fodder research and grassland development. The Sabarmathi Ashram gaushala founded in 1915 by Mahatma Gandhi near Ahmedabad is now being managed by NDDB and has a training center for AI service including embryo transfer.

1.1. Agriculture

Derived from Latin word; Ager-soil and culture-Cultivation.

An art: Governs the knowledge to perform the operations of the farm in a skillful ways.

A science: Uses technologies including breeding, production technologies, crop protection, economics etc., to maximize the yield and profitability of the farmer.

A business: Way of life for a rural population.

Involves management of labour, water and capital, and employing technologies for production of food, fibre, feed and fuel through mechanization to achieve maximum returns.

As per Agricultural act 1947, agriculture includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, livestock breeding, grazing land, meadow land, market gardens and nursery gardens.

1.1. Definition

Soil: Thin layer of earth’s crust made up of disintegrated and decomposed rocks, complex mineral compound, organic matter, water/air and living organism like bacteria, fungi, insects and worms and serves as the natural medium of growth of plants.

Provides nutrients, moisture, anchorage (support) and air to plants.

Parent materials are igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks.

Soil Science: Science dealing with soil (Natural resource) on the surface of the earth, including pedology (Soil genesis, classification and mapping), physical, chemical, biological and fertility properties and their relation to management for crop production.

2.1. Soil structure

Important physical properties of soils

Soil texture

Soil structure

Surface area

Soil density

3.1. Soil colloids

Clay fraction of the soil contains particles less than 0.002 mm in size.

Particles less than 0.001 mm size possess colloidal properties and are known as soil colloids.

4.1. Role of soil microorganisms

Soil N utilization by plants.

Dead organic matters decomposed.

Nutrient transformation.

Physical and chemical properties of soil.

CO₂ content.

Soil formation.

5.1. Organic matter

In sandy soil, the sticky and slimy organic materials cement the sand particles together to form aggregates.

In clayey soil, it modifies the properties of clay by reducing its cohesiveness and making clay more crumby.

6.1. Humus

Fraction of organic matter.

Complex and resistant mixture of brown or dark brown amorphous and colloidal organic substance.

6.2. Humus formation

1. Decomposition: Chemicals in the plant residues are broken down by soil microbes.

Simpler chemicals are metabolized into new compounds in the body tissue of soil microbes.

New compounds are subjected to further modification and synthesis as the microbial tissue is subsequently attacked by other soil microbes.

Involved in plant metabolic functions and the plant cannot complete its life cycle without the element.

7.1. Plant nutrient concentration and plant growth

1. Deficient

Lowest concentration of an essential element that limit yield severely and cause distinct deficiency symptoms.

8.1. Classification of essential nutrients

8.1.1. Based on the amount required by the plant

Major nutrients-Required in large quantities eg. N, P, K.

Secondary nutrients-Required in lesser quantities compared to major nutrients eg. Ca, Mg, S.

Micronutrients-Required in trace quantities eg. Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo.

9.1. Nutrient deficiency of corrective measures

9.1.1. Major and secondary nutrients

Any material of natural or synthetic origin added to the soil to supply one or more plant nutrients.

10.1. Classification of fertilizers

10.1.1. Straight fertilizers

Supply only one primary plant nutrient, namely nitrogen or phosphorus or potassium.

Eg. Urea, ammonium sulphate, potassium chloride and potassium sulphate.

Word manure derived from French ‘Manoeuvrer, means to manipulate, to work, to produce crop.

11.1. Sources of organic wastes

Cattle shed wastes, dung, urine and slurry from biogas plants.

Human habitation wastes-night soil, human urine, town refuse, sewage, sludge and sullage.

Poultry jitter, droppings of sheep and goat.

Slaughterhouse wastes-bone meal, meat meal, blood meal, horn and hoof meal, fish wastes.

Byproducts of agro industries-oil cakes, bagasse and press mud, fruit and vegetable processing wastes etc.

12.1. Problem soils

Chemical constraints: Salinity, sodicity, acidity and nutrient toxicities

Physical constraints : High or low permeability, sub soil hard pan, surface crusting, fluffy paddy soils, sandy soils etc.

13.1. Soil survey and soil mapping

Refers to study and mapping of soils in the fields.

Process of classifying soil types and other soil properties in a given area and geo-encoding such information.

Draws information on geomorphology, theories of soil formation, physical geography, analysis of vegetation and land use patterns.

Primary data for the soil survey are acquired by field sampling and by remote sensing.

Remote sensing principally uses aerial photography (Illuminating the object/ target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with sensor), but LiDAR ( Light Detection and Ranging) and other digital techniques.

14.1. Soil fertility

Ability of the soil to supply essential plant nutrients during growth period of the plants

Crop producing capacity of the soil