Book Description

Indian economy is predominantly rural and agriculture oriented where the declining trend in the average size of the farm holding possesses a serious problem. In agriculture 84 per cent of the holding is less than 2 acres. Majority of them are dry lands and even irrigated areas depend on the vagaries of monsoon. In this context, if farmers concentrated on crop production they will be subjected to a high degree of uncertainty in income and employment. Hence, it is imperative to evolve suitable strategy for augmenting the income of the small and marginal farmers by combining to increase the productivity and supplement the income. The population is steadily increasing without any possibility of increase in land area. The income from cropping for an average farmer is hardly sufficient to sustain his family. The farmer has to be assured of a regular income for a reasonable standard of living by including other enterprises. This strategy is highly relevant for enhancing the economic options among smaller farms for a labour surplus economy in rural sector for maximization of employment opportunities for the upliftment of landless, small and marginal farmers, who constitute about 84 per cent of total farmers. Opportunities for diversification of labour employment have to be created so that growing surplus labour force may be absorbed in the villages; this is because the productivity of small farms is not only too low but also farm size is too small to realize the scale of economies.