There are 664369 villages in India as of 2020. Out of these inhabited villages in the country, the largest number of villages (145000) is in the population (See Figure 1 below) size group of 500-999 persons, followed by the groups 100-1999 (130000) and 200-499 (128000). There are 3,961 villages, which have a population of 10,000 persons or more. Many population clusters, due to the different qualification definitions to be a rural or urban village, lose out on benefits for “Village’s”. I feel that if 50-75% of the land area outlined to a village is used for agriculture, horticulture & livestock as also fishing & aquaculture, the population cluster should be called a village, & should qualify as a village irrespective of the population size. The population of rural India is estimated to be 700 million.
Once the definition of a village is agreed upon, then adequate resources, means & ends should be provided to The Village Panchayat. All the land holdings should be consolidated as one farm and should be managed & farmed as one farm by the elected Panchayat. The entire landholding of the village should be partitioned as per soil quality, irrigation facilities, location and size and the farm landowner should be given equity in the overall cooperative so as to enjoy kind & cash returns that will be earned by the “Village Farm” according to his/her equity share.\ Resources, Means & Ends that should be provided to the Panchayat for the Cooperative One Village Farm:-
Most of what has been mentioned above may already being done in villages, but the objective of this article is to let the educated & urbanite know that villages could be fun also to study & work in, and the potential of being markets for various goods, products & services should not be underestimated. Remember, the village is mostly where most of the food that the nation eats is produced, and one can live without Cars & TVs etc but one cannot live without food. Our farmers take their loans very seriously but these loans must be insured & loaded towards the farmers or the OVF’s side. Vested interests have not allowed the OVFs to crystallize into a national movement but must be encouraged if “Self Reliant India” is the objective, and should cover pan India by 2024. 50% (26 crores) of the working population of India approximately work in agriculture where their contribution is about 17% to the GDP. With OVFs spread all over India, this low productivity will be a thing of the past. One by one as OVFs get established and become self-reliant, so too will India. See Figure 1 below:- |