Agricultural Diversification
Midnapore has red laterite soil.The village was Kaspal in the Borkollah gram
panchayat area. Almost all the families have tube wells. The bank gave credit to
them for water development... I talked to Hari Prasad Samantha, Chitto Maiti and
Jhath Lenka - nobody farms more than two acres. The technology is fairly good. The
original seeds came from the university although there is little replacement in
paddy. But they make more money from cash crops and it is vegetables all the way.
Potatoes are a craze. The seeds come from commercial companies and are expensive....
A great thing that happened on the way was dairying. Almost all of them have between
three to five cows. The women folk look after them. This is now spreading. Farmers
know the best pulse seeds come from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Their own
mustard is good. The land slopes up from the river. About two or three hundred
meters up and a distance away I check out another village. Around half of the
population is poor.It is a mono crop region with the second crop, if any, depending
on the rains. Yields are low. Many answers are possible, but without a plan and
governmentmeffort it would be cruel joke to talk about diversification to them.

Note that agricultural diversification may impact foodgrain production. This
might give rise to a policy dilemma that has to be handled through careful planning.
Since resources are diverted to non- foodgrain uses, foodgrain production may come
down. India’s per capita availability is very low when we compare the same with
countries in Europe (700 grams) and USA (850 grams). The decline in the
level of per capita availability of foodgrains is something to be worried about for
India’s food security. The poorer households exert more energy and depend much more
on foodgrains as their source of energy intake. The policy should aim to increase
production of food grains and other types of food simultaneously.

  • Underline words and sentences that
    deal with agricultural diversification
    and explain why are these essential for
    Indian farmers.
  • Write a description of agricultural
    diversification for your own village or
    any village that you know about.

Access to Food

The next important aspect of food security is the access to food. It is not
sufficient to produce foodgrains and other items. Everyone should be able to buy
them for consumption. Is everyone able to access the minimum food requirement?

You may recall what you studied in Class VIII about poverty. Food we eat gets
burnt in our body and produces heat and this is measured in terms of calories. This
helps to do our work. If we eat less or less nutritious food, the calorie intake of
our body becomes less and hence we may find it difficult to work or our health
may get

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