Despite significant growth during the planning era, the occupational structure in India has not undergone a radical change. Still some 65 per cent of the population continues to live in villages, seeking employment and living in the agricultural sector. Rural India continues to lag behind the rest of the economy leading to growing gulf in the rural-urban disparities in incomes and living conditions. Poverty, iliteracy, ill-health and civic inertia are all concentrated in the rural areas. This book “Agriculture and Rural Development” brings out the emerging challenges and discusses the policies and programmes for holistic and sustainable development of rural India. Different issues that come up for analysis in this book are classified into SIX PARTS with contents spread over 36 chapters. The author makes extensive use of the latest data and information from the officially published reports. The author of the book advocates the Gandhian Model of Development with decentralised administration and planning with village as the growth centre. Also, the book highlights the relevance of the high level committees like the National Committee on farmers headed by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan and the Model for urbanisation of rural areas advocated by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Inclusive growth, it is pointed out, becomes meaningful, if policy measures are on the lines of the Gandhian Model of Development. Among others, issues covered in this book are: Environment and Sustainable Development; Benefits from the Common Property Resources (CPR) and steps to safeguard CPR; Women Empowerment; Human Resource Development in Rural India; Health for All; Education for All; Regional Imbalances and Social Tensions and Special Economic Zones and their impact on Agriculture. The book meets the requirements of graduate and postgraduate students in economics and rural development. Very rightly, the book concludes that if work culture becomes the motto of all citizens, coupled with value best on native culture of this sacred land, path is well set and then india is bound to emerge as a `DEVELOPED NATION`.
Contents :
Part − I : Introduction
1. India : Land of Rich Culture With Potential Resources
2. Social Capital
Part − II : Rural Development : Theoretical Back-Ground
3. Socio-Economic Structure of Rural India
4. Rural Development : Early Approaches, Experiments and Programmes
5. Rural Development : Theoretical Background
6. Agriculture in Economic Development
Part − III : Resources and Planning For Development
7. Agricultural Development During the Planning Era
8. Natural Resource Management and Livelihood
9. Common Property Resources (CPRs)
10. Forest Resources and Joint Forest Management and Participatory Rural Appraisal
11. Environment and Climate Change
12. Ethics, Environment and Sustainable Development
13. Participatory Watershed Development for Sustainable Rural Livelihood
14. Women Empowerment and Micro Finance
15. Agricultural Labour
16. Small-Scale and Micro Enterprises
17. Rural Banking and Credit
18. Rural Marketing
19. Appropriate Technology for Rural Development
20. Human Resource Development / Human Development Index
Part − IV : Schemes In Development
21. Poverty Alleviation and Employment Generation Programmes
22. Social Security Schemes in India
23. Rural Housing
24. Health Care for All
25. Education for All
26. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam`s Pura Mission for Rural Reconstruction
Part − V : Concerns In The Process Of Development
27. Regional Imbalances and Social Tensions
28. Food Security, Agriculture and Employment
29. Rural Distress and Agrarian Crisis
Part − VI : Era Of New Economic Policy
30. Policy of Liberalization and its Impact on Development
31. Special Economic Zones (SEZ)
32. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
33. National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS)
34. National Commission on Farmers
35. Inclusive Growth : Constraints : A Wayout
36. India to be a Developed Nation
Bibliography
