Sreyashi Datta, Academic Content Writer at Edumartz
The word “rural development” encompasses a wide range of activities ,primarily drawing attention to taking initiatives for the improvement of places that are lacking from the overall development of village economy.
- Improvement of human resources, including education,mainly female education, and skillenhancement are some of the sectors in rural India that are diificultand require new strategies for improvement..
- Land reforms
- Health, including sanitation and public health
- Enhancement of each community’s productive resources
- Infrastructure development, such as power, irrigation, credit, marketing, transportation infrastructure, such as village roads and feeder roads to neighbouring highways, agricultural research and extension institutions, and information dissemination
- Special initiatives to alleviate poverty and significantly enhance the living conditions of the poorer parts of society provides productive employment opportunities.
All of this means that individuals working in agricultural and non-farm operations in rural regions must be supplied with a variety of tools to assist them boost production. They must also be provided opportunity to diversify into non-farm productive businesses such as food processing. Better and more inexpensive access to healthcare, sanitary facilities in businesses and residences, and universal education would all need to be prioritised for quick rural development.
In a previous chapter, it was noticed that, while the agricultural sector’s contribution to GDP was declining, the population relying on this sector did not alter much. Furthermore, with the implementation of reforms, the agricultural sector’s growth rate slowed to around 3% per year from 1991 to 2012, which was lower than in previous years. This industry has gotten unpredictable in recent years. Agriculture and its linked sectors’ GVA growth rate was less than 1% in 2014-15. Scholars attribute the fall in public investment since 1991 as the primary cause.They also contend that poor infrastructure, a lack of alternative employment options in industry or the service sector, rising casualization of work, and other factors limit rural growth. The rising anguish among farmers in many regions of India reflects the impact of this phenomena. Against this backdrop, we will examine some of the most important features of rural India, such as finance and marketing systems, agricultural diversification, and the importance of organic farming in fostering sustainable development.