Vol. 4, Issue 2, Part A (2022)

Agriculture occupies the most vital part in the Indian economy and it is the prime resource of the nation. In present study main attention is focused on agricultural surplus production & establishment of agro-based industries for analyzing the indicators of rural development in the study area. Agricultural surplus production is key to agricultural based industrial development and which leads to rural development. Rural population and crops grown have deep rooted relationships. So, surplus agricultural production has been calculated on rural population of study area. As food crops provides the maximum calories in the human diet, nine food crops have been selected for the present study, which are rice, bajra, maize, wheat, barley, gram, pulses other than gram, fruits & vegetables and sugar cane. The food crops were converted into calories according to nutritive values of Indian food, worked by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad. The total per capita surplus calories has been calculated in simple manner, calories other than food crops like milk etc. has been left out for calculating the surplus per capita calories. Thus only 1982 calories, the standard requirements of per capita are taken into account for surplus calories. The study area has surplus per capita calories supplied by total food crops in 1970-71 was 2685.34, which increased to 4758.34 in 2000-01 and shows a 77.23% positive change. Crop rising not only significantly contributes to the basket of agricultural products to feed the people but it provides raw material to many industries called agro–based industries.The establishment of agro-based industries is the indicator of rural development. In recent years Haryana has emerged as one of the most progressive state of India in the field of agriculture. The study area is a part of Haryana state, dominated by agriculture and plenty of raw materials is available for agro-based industries. In the study area industrial development is mainly based on agro-based industries.An increase of more than 400% has been noticed in establishment of agro-based industries & same trend found persons were engaged in these industries from 1970-71 to 2000-01 in the Sonipat district. The major objective of this study is to assess the role of agricultural surplus production & establishment of agro-based industries in rural development in the study area. The present study has been brought out with a view to draw the attention of the authorities concerned on above same.