Sustainable Development: Village

Image by Jason Riedy via Flickr

Today, sustainable development is a buzzword. Many people define sustainable development in different ways. Simply it could be defined as a way to grow and change without causing any impact on nature and on future generations.

While thinking of this definition, I thought of finding solutions for a very simple ecosystem like village. Generally, village ecosystem interacts a lot with nature and is less complex as compared to urban ecosystem.

Before giving solution, let us find out what are the basic activities and habits of a common village. Some of the findings are given below:

1. They have agriculture
2. They have houses.
3. Houses are made up of wood, bricks, cement or fibers.
4. The food cooked generally using firewood, LPG, kerosene, biogas.
5. Festivals
6. Livestock
7. Animal grazing
8. Clothing
9. Money
10. Transport

Now for sustainable development it is important that there is minimum intervention of the external factors and overall carbon footprint is zero. To make it feasible, it is important that we treat a village as a small, isolated compartment.

The problems associated with compartmentalization of village are:

1) Population growth

2) Nutritional security

Population growth will lead to the increase demand of space, food, clothing, etc. Secondly, if the village is an isolated system then there is a chance that village may not be to self sufficient in terms of fulfilling its nutritional needs.

How to solve above mentioned problems?

For controlling population it is important to promote family planning while to for nutritional security, it is important to grow all kinds of crops which can directly or indirectly can provide nutritional security. For example, grow a combination of cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits and oil seeds to suffice the nutritional needs of the village.

If the above-mentioned practice is done, then the village can become self-reliant and hence a sustainable life can be ensured. Other wise like urban areas, villages will also become unsustainable.

For more articles related to development, refer:

1. “what You Think is Not Always True”: A recent real life incident on field which taught me a lesson on development.
2. Sustainable Development: Village: Find out how to make a village life sustainable or self-reliant.
3. How to Solve the Problem of Slums: A simple way to solve one of the toughest problems of the world.
4. Discriminated Vegans Development: Discrimination against vegans can severely affect different forms of their development. Find out different developments affected in this article.
5. Effect of Discrimination on Development: It shows the various kinds of development which are hindered if discrimination is there.
6. Modified Biogas Digester: This biogas digester designing will make biogas very much commercially viable.
7. Biotechnology: Hype or Truth?: Check out the reality of the latest booming scientific field called biotechnology.
8. 11 Facts About Public Policy: Real facts, which determine the public policy today.
9. Village Tourism: Advantages of village tourism are given.