Rural Economy

Rural Economy

India is known as an agricultural country, as most of the population of villages depends on agriculture. Agriculture forms the backbone of the country’s economy. The agricul­tural sector contributes most to the overall economic development of the country.

For centuries together, the Indian village has been a self-sufficient and self-contained econ­omy. During the past forty years, rural reconstruction and development have been the major thrust of economic planning, which has caused a rapid transformation in the Indian rural economic structure.

These changes have occurred in areas such as land reforms, agriculture, animal husbandry, supplies and marketing, village industries, rural leadership, and administration. With the help of the rural development pro­grammes, a cultivator is able to take advantage of modern technological facilities in his agricultural operations. These cultivators are now using modern agricultural imple­ments and high-yielding varieties of seeds and fertilizers.

Several other welfare services were introduced, such as opening up of schools, primary healthcare centres, improving the means of transport and communication, and spread of mass media services to rural areas, etc. These welfare services have materially affected the rural life.

Features of Rural Economy:

Some of the distinguished features of the present-day rural economy are as follows:

1. Commercialization of Agriculture. In the present days, a large part of rural economy has been opened up, which has made commercialization of agricul­ture possible. The extent of commercialization of agriculture in rural economy marks the stage of its development.

The major factors contributed to the com­mercialization of agriculture are as follows:

a. High production and productivity gains have made agriculture a profitable proposition.

b. Increase in production was possible due to the use of advanced technology in agricultural operations.

c. Massive expansion of road transport has reduced the distance between ru­ral and urban areas.

d. Development of regulated markets and cooperative marketing structure has helped the farmers to break away from village system of moneylend­ers and middlemen.

2. Rural Society under the Impact of Urbanism. The past five decades have wit­nessed the rural society of India in getting exposed to the waves of urbanism. Most of the features of urban areas have been modified and diluted into the rural society. This has led to a new way of urbanism called rural-urbanism.

Ur­banism has induced the disintegration of traditional joint family, disappearance of neighbourhood, sophistication, emergence of individualism, etc. Urbanism also created new social institutions, which were absent in the traditional rural set-up. Urbanism has also brought about modernization.

Contacts between the rural and urban areas have been increased due to the development of the means of transportation. Similarly, the means of communication such as radio, tran­sistor, television and telephones have brought the remote villages nearer to the urban towns. Increase in the contacts between the rural and urban areas has enabled a quick assimilation of rural areas with the mainstream of urban life.

Earlier, the demand of rural India to the industrial goods was limited only to the basic necessities However, the situation has changed now. Today, rural India is seen as the potential market to the industrial goods. Observing such a situation, many industries have been flourished in rural areas, which are rich in the resources needed for the setting up of industries.

Two reasons can be at­tributed to such a situation. Firstly, contacts with the urban areas have created awareness among the rural masses about consumer goods. Due to green revo­lution, the income levels of the rural people have increased, which encourages such consumption of goods possible.

Secondly, the new agricultural technol­ogy has resulted in the green revolution. It supplies the industrial goods such as fertilizers, machinery, etc. There is also an increasing demand for the repair services and workshops, which is inevitable, when there is a supply of indus­trial goods.