Hinglish

The Government's Role and Challenges

Class 7 Social Science · Chapter 13: The Story of Indian Farming · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 13.6

Learn

The government supports farmers in many ways: supplying good seeds and fertilisers, sharing weather and market information, giving cheaper electricity for pumps, offering crop insurance through the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, buying key crops at fair prices, and building cold storage so produce does not rot. Meher's grandfather checks crop prices on his phone before taking his onions to the mandi.

Farmers still face big challenges. The average landholding is only about 0.75 hectare (1 hectare = 10,000 m², a little more than a football field), so machines are costly and incomes small. Climate change brings erratic rain, heat waves and floods. Rivers and groundwater are under stress, many farmers fall into debt, and about 2,300 people leave farming every day. Yet farmers feed over 140 crore people, so their wellbeing matters to us all.

Explore: support or challenge?

  1. Sort each item.

Remember

  • The government helps with inputs, information, insurance, fair prices and storage.
  • Small landholdings, climate change, water stress and debt are big challenges.

Quick check

How many square metres are in one hectare?

  1. 10,000
  2. 100
  3. 1,000
  4. 1,00,000
Answer

10,000. An acre is about 4,047 m², so a hectare is about 2.5 acres.

Think about it

How can people in cities help farmers?

One answer

By not wasting food, buying local and seasonal produce, supporting farmers' markets and fair prices, and saving water, since farming depends on it.

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.