Working in Village
• Poor families in rural areas spend a lot of time every day collecting firewood, getting water, and grazing their cattle even though they do not earn any money from these activities.
• Nearly two-fifth of all rural families are agricultural labourers in our country.
• Some have small plots of land while others are landless.
Agricultural Labourers
• They depend on work which they do in other people’s fields to earn a living.
• The 80% of farmers belong to small groups.
• Other occupations of people in rural areas depend upon collection from forest, animal husbandry, dairy produce, fishing.
Debt
• farmers need to borrow money to purchase basic things like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. They borrow this money from moneylenders.
• Farmers sometimes are unable to pay back their loans due to crop failure, which makes them in debt.
• debt has been an issue of farmers’ suicide.
Rural Livelihoods
• People in rural areas earn their livelihood in various ways some work on farms while others earn their livelihood through non farm activities.
• Rural people in different regions of country grow different crops.
Terrace Farming
• In this type of farming, land on a hill slope is made into flat plots and carved out in steps.
• sides of each plot are raised to retain water.
• This allows water to stand in field, which is best for rice cultivation.