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ABSTRACT

India resides in its villages and agriculture is major source of livelihood for rural people. Hence, agricultural growth has an intimate connection with rural development. In this context of various rural development efforts, model villages have been a popular concept among policymakers. These model villages set the benchmark for the rest of the villages in the country. Our paper proposed to replicate the concept of model villages, which is presently prevailing only in few villages into entire our country. Though the concept of model villages would differ for each village as every village has different, agriculture will remain the main activity of Indian villages.

Keywords: Model village, smart village, rural development, rural youth, agriculture

According to the Census of India (2011), those areas where the population is below 5000 and population density less than 400 per square kilometer are considered as villages or rural areas. In such areas, at least 75 percent of the males of the working population is engaged in agrarian sectors. Mahatma Gandhi said that India resides in its village, highlighting the development of villages for the development of India. In this context, the concept of model village emerged from the vision of Mahatma Gandhi, wherein his two texts Hind Swaraj and Gram Swaraj, he talks about Adarsh Gram, promoting the concept of integrated rural development to impact the majority of the population, as the primary initiative after India Independence in 1947. Presently, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is running program of Government of India, it was launched on 2^nd October 2014 for village adoption and setting them as role model villages for rest of the villages in our country. The Holistic Village Development Program (HVDP) under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), where each Member of Parliament adopts one village from their constituency to transform that village into a model village. The ideal village model is based on multidimensional aspects including water issues, agriculture issues, gender issues, health issues etc. Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) covered 2379 villages till 2019.

 Agriculture: critical component for village development

Agriculture has been the part and parcel of human life since the advent of ancient civilizations. In India, agriculture is the lifeline of more than two-third population directly or indirectly. It contributes 17 percent to gross domestic products and is a major source of livelihood for more than 50 percent population. Moreover, agricultural growth has an intimate connection with the concept of rural development. Agriculture has strong, direct forward linkages to agricultural processing and backward linkages to inputs supply industries. So, it is necessary for a village to have a strong agricultural base and happy farming community to be called a developed or smart or model village. As per National Skill Development Policy, 2015, the breakup of incremental requirement across sectors is maximum in agriculture i.e., in 2013, the employment base was 240.40 million and it projects employment base of 215.60 million in 2022. This indicates that green jobs, that is, agriculture, horticulture, renewable energy, recycling, ecotourism, etc., are the future of India. Meanwhile, it is revealed that 80 percent of farmers own marginal and small landholding. These farmers face problems regarding the marketing of their produce, availability of inputs, subsidy support and credit, lack of extension activities and facilities provided by different agencies, new research findings and technologies, etc. Presently, agriculture nationwide is facing the menace of climate change, water crises, food wastage, fluctuating prices and many more, which needs adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies with community participation. Hence, agricultural reform is in the core of smart villages and model villages.

Apart from farming, model villages emphasize resource assessment and set goals as per the needs of local people. One such need is about water and soil conservation or natural resource management like rejuvenation of soil and water resources through micro-watershed management, planting of native species of trees and medicinal plants and various watershed development activities. Hence, model villages how positive signs of improving water availability, cropping pattern, livestock management, and local employment prospects at the grass-root level in a sustainable manner (Mukherjee and Maiy, 2017).

 Some successful model villages with strong agriculture base

Hiware Bazar: Hiware Bazar is situated in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. The village is known for its highest GDP and over the years, village has made significant progress field of agriculture, education, livelihoods, sanitation, water- management and women empowerment. Before adoption of village, farming was mainly rain-fed and there was seasonal migration in search of livelihood. But on adoption, a holistic approach of development was undertaken, through variety of activities like focusing on proper implementation of governmental schemes, launching of a watershed development programme and establishing various community-based organizations like women thrift groups, milk dairy society and youth clubs a drastic positive change was observed in the village.

Ankapur: Ankapur is a village in  Nizamabad district  of Telangana. It is recognized as a Model Village by the ICAR, ICRISAT and the IRRI. Some of the important features of the agricultural model of the Ankapur included peasant association of the village, which coordinates various agricultural interventions; decision-making process being inclusive and based on consensus-building; focus on new sources of income, such as commercial cultivation of seeds, scientific crop rotation techniques, stress on sustainable agriculture with greater use of farmyard manure and lesser use of chemical fertilizers and role of Village Market Yards in facilitating the sale of agricultural produce with minimal wastage. It was reported that agriculture accounted for almost the entire economic output from many villages in India. As per this model village, participatory agriculture, with equal focus on irrigation, watershed management and technology-led cultivation should be the way forward for village development in India.

Kumbalangi: A model for eco-tourism is at the Kumbalang. The Kumbalangi is essentially a fishing hamlet which has been developed as a unique rural tourist destination in Kerala’s Ernakulam district. In 2003, the Kerala government selected several villages as model villages. Eco-tourism activities involved organic farm produce stay at backwater front cottages, dinning over Kerala cuisine, cooking classes, village tour, boating and exposure to toddy tapping and crab farming. The Kumbalangi approach could be adopted by other coastal villages to boost tourism and provide livelihood to local communities. Like Kumbalangi, villages can be developed as hub of farm tourism, eco-tourism or agro-tourism. Agro-tourism in this decade has come up as an opportunity for proving employment to rural community. With government support as in the case of Kumbalangi, other villages can be made smart and self-reliant.

The dream of India as developed nation is possible only with self-sufficient and self-reliant villages. This dream starts with improvising the primary sector of the country. Model villages with strong agricultural base, has proved its their ability to transform the life of rural people, as depicted by mentioned cases. This also boosts economic status through improved productivities in agriculture, sericulture, horticulture and livestock sectors.

                Looking into the importance of developing of smart villages, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched a nationwide scheme on 25^th July 2015 named Mera Gaon, Mera Gaurav (My village, my pride) to promote the direct interface of scientist with the farmers to speed-up the lab to land process. Normally a group of scientists adopt a village within radius of 50-100km from their place of working. In this context, ICAR-VPKAS (Vivekanand Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan) is one such ICAR research institute. Under this program, 25 villages in six clusters from 5 blocks in Almora district were adopted. Six teams of 5 multidisciplinary scientists constituted to work in each cluster of 5 villages. National priorities such as soil and water conservation, secondary agriculture, mechanization and distribution of soil health cards to farmers were also taken care of. The activities in adopted village included 18 Interface meetings/Goshthies, demonstrations at farmers` field, training camps, agro-advisory services by sending SMSs to farmers, creating awareness among farmers about improving productivity and quality of important hill crops with emphasis on conservation and efficient utilization of natural resources. Farmers were provided input support with improved varieties of wheat, VL- Masoor 126, VL-Gehun907, VL-Gehun 953, Lentil, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Pea, Lahi, and Radish.

 Rural youth: key drivers of smart Indian villages

                As established through above examples, agriculture is the main activity of Indian villages.However, to make villages smart or model, agriculture needs a transformed outlook from earlier traditional approach to innovative and integrative approach which allows space for both scientific as well as indigenous agriculture. Thus, the route of developed Indian villages has to go with agriculture at its core. Moreover, the dream of self-reliant Indian villages can be fulfilled only when the entire community of which rural youth forms a major part takes the responsibility of their own development and collaborate with various agricultural and rural development institutions and other stakeholders to build sustainable agricultural enterprises at village level. Thus, when rural youth will own the development process and will realise their role in catalysing agricultural development, then the process of development will expand. Skill development of rural youth, promotion of agricultural enterprise among them, food processing and vocational trainings on use of cutting-agricultural technologies can pave the way in this direction.

Conclusion

                Looking into the Indian context where villages form our national identity. It is very important to rescue these villages from the problem of migration on the other hand equally important is to develop these villages in such a way that they can also contribute to the all-round development of our nation. Our paper proposed to replicate the concept of model villages which is presently prevailing only in few villages into entire our country. Though the concept of model villages would differ for each village as every village has different resources, different opportunities, strengths as well as challenges but the common string connecting all these villages would be the participation of community (without which sustainability cannot be achieved), intervention of technology especially in assessment of resources and careful implementation of all governmental schemes. In this whole process a very important role is also to be played by various key institutions & organization like panchayats (local self-government), voluntary organizations etc. who would not only act in the process of planning, strategizing, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of model village concept but also in providing skills to rural youth according to the resources available. Though, it appears to be like a dream but as it is said every dream has potential to be transformed into reality. Similarly, this idea can also be converted into reality with ownership of all stakeholders.

 Further Reading

 

ICAR-CIRCOT. 2015. E- News Letter. Model Villages. 2(8). Retrieved online on 11-07-2021 at https://circot.res.in/en/wpcontent/uploads/2019/06/ICAR-CIRCOT_enewsletter_v2n8.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/Deepoak/rural-lib-sttudy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansad_Adarsh_Gram_Yojana

Ministry of tribal affairs, Government of India. Modal Village. Retrieved online on 05-06-2021 https://tribal.nic.in/Model-village.aspx

Ramachandra, T. V., Hedge, G. Chandra, S., Kumar, T. A. and Swamiji, V. Smart Village Framework. Retrieved online on 05-06-2021 at http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/biodiversity/pubs/ETR/ETR90/content.html.

Mukherjee, A. and Maity, A. (2017). My village my pride: A concept towards better India. Indian Farming 66 (6), 2-5

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Concept of model villages and agriculture in its core_compressed.pdf