Suchergebnisse

The study of the impact of agricultural cooperative credit on agricultural inputs, land improvement, production and marketing of different holding groups is important for the assessment of credit utilisation. If the credit is utilised properly for the purpose for it was sanctioned, its impact that is, flow of benefits to the beneficiaries will help in improving their economic status. Food is a prime necessity of life, is an agricultural product and that the world is still so poor that it must devote a great part of its resources to the production of necessity. The utilisation pattern of loans reflects that only marginal farmers have shown the best results. Therefore, misuse of loans has been negligible in the case of marginal farmers and special schemes should be launched to further meet the financial needs of the marginal farmers. However, in terms of land improvement exceptions have been noticed in terms of larger farmers who make investments on land improvement. The coefficient of correlation between agricultural inputs and level of production reflects that there exists a perfect positive relationship between the two, but it is subject to marginal farmers only. The cooperative marketing societies are functioning under certain constraints which have hindered their growth. The main reasons are storage facilities and lack of local markets. However, of late, the government makes some efforts to locate the market in the local area, which further need to be disseminated to the clusters of two to three villages.

In the context of the changing economic scenario globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation of the economy, rural and more specifically the agriculture sector is likely to face many problems. With development, per capita income is increasing and the relative importance of agriculture in national income is diminishing but it continues to play a crucial role in national employment, food security and export earnings. But this sector is facing double challenges, absorbing additional workers and increasing the productivity of average labourers. The awareness of the problem of utilisation of labour has grown over the years. But there is a gross under-utilisation of human labour in Indian agriculture owing to the seasonal nature of crops grown. In this paper an attempt is made to assess the magnitude of seasonal surplus in the rural sector of Himachal Pradesh. The findings of the study showed that the nature of unemployment prevailing in the study area is both removable or permanent as well as nonremovable or seasonal unemployment or temporary unemployment. Additional work should be provided to nonremovable or seasonal surplus and it should be of a supplementary nature provided during the lean agricultural season, so that it does not clash with their main farming work during the peak season. Removable surplus should be used for productive purposes and economic development in the non-agriculture sector.