Rural development

Topics

 What is rural development

 What are main rural problems in Pakistan
 What measures we should take to eliminate these problems

What is rural development

Pakistan is basically an agricultural country. Its rural areas and the population continue to be the
mainstay of economy. Agriculture is the largest sector in the economy contributing 25 percent of
the GDP and providing 70% of the total value of exports. The sector at present employs 17
million workers, representing 44% of the country's labor force. About 67 % of population resides
in rural areas. The major sources of their earnings are agriculture and other small-scale rural
enterprises, which directly or indirectly depend on agriculture. Many of the rural poor live in areas
where arable land is scarce, agriculture potential is low; drought, and environmental degradation
are common features. Moreover access to basic human needs i.e. basic human rights such as
potable water and sanitation, education and healthcare are far less available in rural areas. The
problems of malnutrition, low life expectancy and high infant mortality are more prevalent in rural
areas. It is argued that sustainable agriculture is the main vehicle for rural development and the
rural development will not take place unless we view rural more than farmers. We need to value
them as contributor to the employment, manager of rural landscape and environmental steward
in protecting and upgrading the ecosystem and setting social and cultural order and above all
supplier of safe high quality products to consumers. Successful rural community development
calls for an integrated and comprehensive approach. We need to make, logically, efforts to
identify economic opportunities, ecological constraints and social expectations. Sustainable
rural development demands a balanced and a holistic approach in devising an actionable rural
sector strategy. In the article, an overview of agriculture; its role in the economy; problems faced
in the in the development of rural areas and its dwellers, and vision for the future has been
presented.

WHAT ARE MAIN RURAL PROBLEMS IN PAKISTAN

Poverty has remained Pakistan’s legacy and its quantum has deepened over the
years. The country’s poverty crisis is largely concentrated in its more than 45,000
villages.

The real challenge of alleviating poverty, therefore, lies in developing the rural
sector. Our rural belt primarily consists of the land of small farmers and landless
laborers who are categorised among the rural poor. About 35 percent of the rural
population lives below the subsistence level where social services are extremely
inadequate.

Pakistan’s economy, security, solidarity and integrity is based on its rural sector,
which presents a dismal picture of poverty; ill-health; alarmingly low rates of literacy;
malnutrition; high population growth; poor social and physical infrastructure; low
production and productivity; unemployment; massive exploitation; and the abuse of
the poor by landowners and government officials.

Pakistan is blessed with an ideal climate and vast alluvial plains along with a river
system that is capable of stimulating the highest level of agricultural production. Its
economy derives its strength from the agricultural sector. It would not be wrong to
assume that the safety, security, solidarity and future of this country largely depend
on its villages. Therefore, rural development becomes the heart of Pakistan’s
economic development crisis.

Pakistan was far ahead of India in almost all sectors of development – particularly in
terms of agriculture – in the early years of Partition. In the decade after Partition,
India began a balanced approach towards rural and urban development by giving
due priority to the rural sector and focusing on its infrastructure; electrification;
village tubewells; and subsidies on inputs required by small farmers.

Since rural development programmes intend to reduce poverty, it must be clearly

designed to increase production and raise productivity by adopting the time-
honoured integrated rural development approach and selecting the production areas
of between 50 and 60 villages with a will to improve the socioeconomic status of the
target group: the rural poor. The initial focus should be on increasing agricultural
production and productivity through the intensification, diversification, and
commercialisation of agriculture based on a sound physical, organisational and
institutional infrastructure. Rural development depends on sustained growth as rural
income is primarily derived from agriculture and has the capacity to meet the cost of
any development programme.
In Pakistan, a number of rural development programmes were launched to increase
its agricultural production and productivity. They were implemented with the
intention of creating abundant job opportunities to improve the social and physical
infrastructure in rural areas. Unfortunately, the most important element that has
been overlooked is the human development.

Successive governments have launched various well-publicised programmes. These

include Village Aid in the 1950s; the basic democracies system in the 1960s;
Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in the 1970s; and the five-point
programme in the 1980s. However, the beneficiaries of all these initiatives were
large, influential farmers who had already received patronage from the
governments. Small farmers were mostly sidelined.

While formulating the concept of the IRDP, all shortcomings were taken into
consideration. This programme remained operational through political will and
commitment for seven years between 1972 and 1979. With the sudden change of
the government, the IRDP also met the same fate and was rolled back without any
cogent reasons and evaluation.

Unfortunately, it seems that doing away with rural development programmes

started by previous governments has become a tradition. This has happened in the
case of Village Aid, basic democracies and the IRDP – though the IRDP was a time-
tested programme that was duly approved and applauded by the international
community and UN organs.

These programmes did not create the desired impact owing to the absence of
political commitment; non-participation of the people at the grassroots level; a lack
of local resource mobilisation; and the dearth of an empowered local government
system and people-centric institutions, including NGOs and CBOs.

To sum up, we can say that very little emphasis was placed on integrated rural
development and most of the government programmes were run for a single
purpose, with isolated efforts imposed by the political leadership from above. Little
or no effort was made to evolve a leadership from the grassroots and above that
implements programmes on the principles of self-reliance, self-support and
accountability that monitored these initiatives.

Pakistan’s future relies on its rural sector as a majority of our population lives in
villages. Therefore, steps should be taken to develop this sector on a priority basis.
The emphasis should not only be on improving poverty alleviation, but also on
introducing strategies to promote poverty eradication. The solution lies in
strengthening rural infrastructure and ensuring that all villages are accessible
through road links. Villages should also be provided electricity and gas, with
subsidised rated for tubewells.

Modern technology should be introduced for pre- and post-harvest. Such technology
should especially be provided to small farmers at their doorsteps.

Growth centres should be established for every 10 union councils that should work
towards marketing produce and establishing small and medium-sized industries to
create jobs for the rural population so they don’t have to migrate to cities.
Arrangements for setting up agro-based industries through local raw materials
should also be prioritised. In addition, the local leadership should be encouraged.

As an agrarian economy, Pakistan strongly relies on its rural sector. While planning
and developing the urban and rural sectors, priority should be given to rural areas so
as to ensure that small farmers – who are the backbone of our economy – reap the
benefit and production and productivity improves.

The provincial administrations ought to implement local government programme

and revive the IRDP by ensuring that it has the political commitment to reduce rural
poverty.

WHAT MEASURES SHOULD BE TAKEN TO IMPROVE RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN

These include increasing the efficiency of water use in the Indus river basin
irrigation system, especially in the face of climate change; reforming
 policies and regulations that govern markets for agricultural inputs and
commodities; and improving the provision of rural public services for
health, education, women's

SOME IMPORTANT ELEMENTS THAT CAN IMPROVE RURAL

DEVELOPMENT
 Education.

 Public health and Sanitation.

 Women empowerment.

 Infrastructure development (electricity, irrigation, etc.)

 Facilities for agriculture extension and research.

 Availability of credit.

 Employment opportunities.

Importance of Rural Development

Rural development is important not only for the majority of the population
residing in rural areas, but also for the overall economic expansion of the
nation.
Rural development is considered to be of noticeable importance in the country
today than in the olden days in the process of the evolution of the nation. It is
a strategy that tries to obtain an improved  and productivity, higher socio-
economic equality and ambition, and stability in social and economic
development.
The primary task is to decrease the famine that exists in roughly about 70
percent of the rural population, and to make sufficient and healthy food
available.
The secondary task is to ensure the availability of clothing and footwear, a
clean environment and house, medical attention, recreational provision,
education, transport, and communication.
Objectives of Rural Development
The objectives composed by the government in the sixth five-year plan for
rural development are:
 To improve productivity and wages of rural people
 To guarantee increased and quick employment possibilities
 To demolish unemployment and bring a notable decline in
underemployment
 To guarantee an increase in the standard of living of the underprivileged
population
 To provide the basic needs: elementary education, healthcare, clean
drinking water, rural roads, etc.

2. Explain the key issues in rural development. (NCERT)

Answer: The key issues in rural development are:

(1) Development ●     There is a lack of infrastructure in rural areas.

of infrastructure
●     Infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation,
credit, marketing, transport facilities, etc., needs to be
addressed.

(2) Reduction of ●     The reduction of poverty is important because rural

poverty areas have the maximum poverty.

●     Around 30% of the population is below the poverty line;

this figure reduced to 21.92% in 2012.
●     There is a serious need of taking steps for the
alleviation of poverty.
(3) Development ●     Rural areas lack proper health facilities.
of health facilities
●     Better health facilities are necessary for physical
growth of individuals.

(4) Development ●     Productive resources of each locality need to be

of productive developed to enhance employment opportunities.
resources
●     It will help in diversification of production activities with
a view of finding an alternative means other than crop
cultivation to sustain life.

(5) Development ●     There is a need to improve the quality of human

of human resources in rural areas.
resources
●     It can be done by improving the literacy rate (especially
female literacy), skill development, industrial training, etc.