🌾 Pressure on food
More people need more food. Farmers must grow more from the same land, so they use more fertiliser and irrigation, and sometimes plough poorer land.
Changing Rural Environments » Rural Change in a Developing Country
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: 5.2c Factors leading to rural change in a named developing or emerging country
- Why rural areas in a developing or emerging country are changing
- How population growth puts pressure on rural India
- How the changing farm economy and smaller landholdings change rural life
- How to write a case-study answer with named facts
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Unlock This CourseRural change in a developing or emerging country
The spec asks you to know four factors of rural change in a named developing or emerging country: population growth, changing farm economy and landholdings, natural hazards, and rural-urban migration. This lesson covers the first two. The next lesson, Hazards and Rural-Urban Migration, covers the other two in the same country.
Our country is India. It is an emerging country with a very large rural population. Most of its people still live in villages, and many families depend on farming. Rural India is a good example of how fast the countryside can change.
Key terms:
- Developing country: a country with a lower average income and less developed services than a developed country.
- Emerging country: a country whose economy is growing quickly, but where many people are still poor.
- Population growth: an increase in the number of people living in an area.
- Landholding: the area of farmland that a family owns or farms.
- Farm economy: the way farming is organised and the money made from it, including crops, methods and prices.
- Fragmentation: the splitting of farmland into smaller and smaller plots.
Factor 1: population growth
India has more than 1.4 billion people, one of the largest populations in the world. A large share of them, roughly two thirds, live in rural areas. Rural families have often been large, partly because children can help on the farm and parents want someone to look after them in old age. Better health care has also cut the number of children who die, so the population has kept rising.
💧 Pressure on resources
More people use more water, wood and fuel. Wells can run dry and soils can wear out when land is farmed too hard.
There are not enough farm jobs for everyone. Young people in many villages have little work, and the villages need more schools, clinics and roads than they have. Population growth is therefore a main reason why rural areas change.
Factor 2: changing farm economy
Farming in India has changed a lot since the 1960s. In the Green Revolution, farmers in states such as Punjab and Haryana began to use high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, chemical fertiliser and irrigation. Yields rose and India stopped relying on food aid.
The change brought gains and costs.
✅ Gains
Bigger harvests, more food, and more income for farmers who could afford seeds, fertiliser and pumps. Some farmers moved from growing only for the family to selling crops for cash.
❌ Costs
Seeds, fertiliser and water cost money, so poorer farmers borrow and can fall into debt. Heavy use of groundwater has lowered water tables in some areas, and the soil can suffer.
Machines such as tractors and pumps have also spread. They save work but cost money, so farmers with more land and money benefit most. Farms that sell to markets, often called commercial farms, do better than those growing only for the family.
Factor 2 continued: changing landholdings
Landholdings in India are small. The average farm is only about one hectare, and most farms are under two hectares. Why? Land is usually shared between sons when a parent dies. Over the generations each plot gets smaller, which is called fragmentation.
Small farms cause problems. A family may not make enough food or money from so little land. It is hard to afford machines, and the land may be split into several tiny plots far apart. Some families sell or rent out their land and look for other work.
Worked example
Question: Explain how changes to landholdings have led to rural change in India. [3 marks]
Answer: When land is shared between children, each family's farm gets smaller (1). Small farms cannot make enough income or afford machinery (1). Families may leave farming or move away to find other work, so the village economy and population change (1).
Linking the factors
The factors work together. Population growth means more people share the same land, so landholdings shrink. Small farms and a changing farm economy mean fewer people can earn a living from the land. Always link your points like this in a longer answer.
Common mistakes
- Not naming the country. Write "in India" and use facts about it, not general points that fit anywhere.
- Saying population growth is only a problem. It also means more workers and more customers, but in rural India it adds pressure on land.
- Writing "farms got bigger". In India most landholdings have got smaller.
- Mixing up this lesson with natural hazards and rural-urban migration. Those are the other two factors and come next.
Exam-style question
(a) State what is meant by landholding. [1 mark]
(b) Explain how population growth has led to rural change in a named developing or emerging country. [3 marks]
Model answer
(a) The area of farmland that a family owns or farms (1).
(b) In India the rural population has kept growing (1). More people need food, so farmers use more fertiliser and water, which can lower water tables and wear out soils (1). There are not enough farm jobs or services such as schools and clinics for everyone, so rural life changes (1).
Exam tip
For a case-study question, name the country in your first sentence, then add one fact that only fits that country, such as the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana.