SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

CHAPTER IX
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS:
SERICULTURE, DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
In the early years of rural planning, agriculture received greater
focus of development efforts. However, there has been a realisation in
recent decades that land alone cannot provide a livelihood to the
growing population. There was also a recognition that urban areas
cannot go on accommodating the migrant rural population.
Consequently, the development of off-farm sector assumed wider
importance. The strategies of the planners thus included development of
agro-based village industries which can contribute to employment and
meet the development objectives. Similarly, in the initial years of
planned development, there had been an overemphasis on the economic
concerns, without giving much attention to the socio-cultural basis of
rural life.
However, there has been a growing awareness in recent
decades that the development strategies would hardly benefit the rural
masses unless such strategies reflect the socio-cultural concerns of the
people and respond to the ground realities of rural life. Thus, to evolve
the planning strategies in the right direction and to identify the right
targets, a proper and better understanding of the process of rura1 social
change became important.
Sericulture is one of the agro-industries that has been attracting
considerable rural population, especially in South India. Introduction of
sericulture in some parts of Tamil Nadu., as elsewhere, has initiated
different processes of socio-cultural changes, which forms the focus of
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