It essentially focuses on the development of areas that are lagging in the overall development of the village economy. Development of human resources includes literacy (female literacy, education and skill development, and health.

1. Land reforms

• Development of Productive resources in each locality
• Infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, transport facilities including construction of village roads and feeder roads to nearby highways, facilities for agriculture research and extension and information dissemination
• Special measures for alleviation of poverty and bringing about significant improvement in the living conditions of the weaker sections of the population access to productive employment opportunities.
• Better and more affordable access to health care, sanitation facilities at workplaces and homes and education for all should be given top priority for rapid rural development.

2. Credit and marketing in rural areas

Credit

• The growth of the rural economy depends primarily on the infusion of capital from time to time to realize higher productivity in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors.
• Farmers borrow from various sources to meet their initial investment on seeds, fertilizers, implements and other family expenses of marriage, death, religious ceremonies etc.
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was set up in 1982 as an apex body.
• To coordinate the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing system.
• The Green Revolution brings major changes in rural credit toward production-oriented lending.
• The institutional structure of rural banking consists of commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperatives and land development banks.
• Self- Help Groups have emerged to fill the gap in the formal credit system.
• By May 2019, nearly 6 crore women in India have become a member of 54 lakh women SHGs. 

Rural Banking

• The rapid expansion of the banking system positively affects rural farm and non-farm output, income and employment.
• The green revolution helped farmers to avail services and credit facilities and a variety of loans for meeting their production needs.
• Commercial banks and other formal institutions have failed to develop a culture of deposit mobilization lending to worthwhile borrowers and effective loan recovery.
• Agriculture loan rates remain high
• Jan-Dhan Yojana led to more than 40 crore people opening bank accounts and indirectly promoted thrift habits and efficient allocation of financial resources, particularly in rural areas.

3. Agricultural marketing system

It is a process of assembling, storage, processing, transportation, packaging, grading and distributing different agricultural commodities across the country.

• Regulation of markets to create orderly and transparent marketing conditions
• The provision of physical infrastructure facilities like roads, railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storage and processing units
• The government initiative of Cooperative marketing in realizing fair prices for farmers' products
• Assurance of minimum support prices for agricultural products,
• Maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by Food Corporation of India and
• Distribution of food grains and sugar through PDS

Emerging alternate marketing channels

• If farmers directly sell their products to consumers, it increases their incomes.
• Apni Mandi Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Hadaspar Mandi in Pune, Rythu Bazars (Vegetable and fruit markets in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Uzhavar Sandies (farmer’s markers in Tamil Nadu)
• In 2020, the Indian Parliament passed three laws to reform the agriculture marketing system.
• Some sections of farmers support and the rest of the farmers oppose and thus Acts are repealed by the government.

4. Diversification into productive activities

It has two aspects

• Change in the cropping pattern and shift of workforce from agriculture to other allied activities.
• Diversification arises from the fact that there is a greater risk of depending exclusively on farming for livelihood.
• A major proportion of the increasing labour force needs to find alternate employment opportunities in other non-farm sectors.
• Permit healthy growth and low productivity propositions are segments of the non-farm economy.
• The dynamic sub-sectors include agro-processing industries, food processing industries, leather industry, tourism etc.
• Pottery, crafts, handlooms etc. lacks the infrastructure and support.

Animal husbandry

• The farming community uses the mixed crop-livestock farming system, Cattle, goats, and fowl are the widely held species
• Livestock production provides increased stability in income, food security, transport, fuel and nutrition for the family without disrupting other food-producing activities.
• It provides livelihood to the 70 million small and marginal farmers including landless labour.
• Poultry accounts for 61 per cent of the distribution of animals in India.
• India had about 303 million cattle, including 110 million buffaloes in 2019.
• Milk production in the country increased 10 times from 1951-to 2016 through the operation flood programme.
• Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan, are major milk-producing states.
• Meat, eggs, wool and other by-products are also emerging as important productive sectors for diversification.

Fisheries

• After a progressive increase in budgetary allocations and the introduction of new technologies in fisheries and aquaculture, the development of fisheries has come a long way.
• Fish production from inland sources contributes about 65 per cent to the total value of fish production and the remaining 35 per cent comes from the marine sector.
• Fish production accounts for 0.9 per cent of the GDP.
• West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are major fish producing states.
• Most of the fish worker families are poor, underemployment, low per capita earnings, absence of mobility of labour to other sectors and a high rate of illiteracy and indebtedness are some of the major problems in the fishing community.
• About 60 per cent of the workforce in export marketing and 40 per cent of internal marketing are women.
• There is a need to increase credit facilities through cooperatives and SHGs for the fisherwomen to meet the working capital requirements for marketing.
• The problems related to overfishing and pollution need to reduce led and controlled.
• Welfare programmes for the fishing community to provide long-term gains and sustenance of livelihoods.
• Enhancing infrastructures like electricity, cold storage systems, marketing linkages, small-scale processing units and technology improvement and dissemination should be provided to the fisheries.

Horticulture

• India has adopted the growing of diverse horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, spices and plantation crops.
• These crops provide food, nutrition and six per cent of the country’s GDP.
• India emerged as a world leader in producing mangoes, bananas, coconuts, cashew nuts and several spices and the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables.
• Flower harvesting, nursery maintenance, hybrid seed production and tissue culture, propagation of fruits and flowers and food processing are employment options for women in rural areas.