The Story of Village Palampur Unit 3 5

The Story of Village Palampur Unit 3 -5 By: Allen Thomas Cherian Altamas Faizan Mervin Alex

3. Will the land sustain? • Land being a natural resource, it is necessary to be very careful in its use. • Scientific reports indicate that the modern farming methods have overused the natural resource base. • Due to the increase in use of chemical fertilizers: Soil becomes less fertile as the bacteria and other micro-organisms are killed by the chemical fertilizers.

4. How is the land distributed? • Land is really important for farming. • Not all farmers have sufficient land for cultivation. • In Palampur, one-third of the 450 families (i. e. 150. Most of them are dalits) and have no land for cultivation. • The remaining families (i. e. 240), cultivate on small plots of land less than 2 hectares in size. Such plots doesn’t bring adequate income to the farmer’s family. • There around only 60 medium and

5. Who will provide the labour? • Farming requires a great deal of hard work. • Small farmers cultivate their own fields. Thus, they provide the labour required for farming themselves. • Medium and large farmers hire labourers to work on their fields. • Farm labourers can either be landless farmers or farmers cultivating of small plots of land. • Farm labourers don’t have a right over the crops grown on the land. • They are paid wages by the farmer who hired them.

To be continue…. . by someone else