Compare the production of wheat by the three farmers over 3 years.

Gosaipur and Majauli are two villages in north Bihar. Out of a total of 850 households in the two villages, there are more than 250 men, who are employed in rural Punjab and Haryana or in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat, Hyderabad or Nagpur. Such migration is common in most villages across India. Why do people migrate? Can you describe (based on your imagination) the work that the migrants of Gosaipur and Majauli might do at the place of destination.

Let us take three farmers. Each has grown wheat on his field, though the production is different (see Column 2). The consumption of wheat by each farmer family is the same (Column 3). The whole of surplus of wheat this year is used as capital for next year's production. Also suppose production is twice the capital used in production.

Complete the tables.

Farmer 1

Farmer 2

Farmer 3

What happens to farmer-3 in year 3? Can he continue production? What will he have to do to continue production?

Read the following descriptions and answer the questions that follow:

Mishrilal has purchased a mechanical sugarcane crushing machine run on electricity and has set it up on his field. Sugarcane crushing was earlier done with the help of bullocks but people prefer to do it by machines these days. Mishrilal also buys sugarcane from other farmers and processes it into jaggery. The jaggery is then sold to traders at Shahpur. In the process, Mishrilal makes a small profit.

1) What capital did Mishrilal need to set up his jaggery manufacturing unit?

2) Who provides the labour in this case?

3) Can you guess why Mishrilal is unable to increase his profit?

4) Could you think of any reasons when he might face a loss?

5) Why does Mishrilal sell his jaggery to traders in Shahpur and not in his village?