I would say that there is no Rural Development at all if there is no social capital. From research in India I realized that in rural settings, social capital is EVERYTHING. People with high social capital are listened to in the village, they have the power to push things forward, convince people to try something new. Of course, they can also have a negative influence but I am talking about more progressive people.

I studied farmer producer companies in India and it was always people with (amongst others) high social capital that started and kept those farmer enterprises running.

social capital encompasses everything a person rural social life. it may be Membership of Cooperative, member of a Self help group,Office bearer of village panchayat or village committee, Meeting or any group discussion attended, Extension participation. it may also include awareness generation or convincing people about some new methods or, process or technology.

Thank you All for sharing insight on essence of social capital towards rural development.

The territorial approach to rural development highlighted in particular the relevance of human capital, being necessary to have individuals endowed with knowledge and values that enable them to express their developmental potential and desire to excel. To this must be added the dimension of Social Capital is reached when it has these socially organized actors, democratically represented and willing to be agents of their own transformation.

When the dynamics of development in rural areas are analyzed, the first thing that jumps out is the diversity of actors and institutions involved; initiatives which take advantage of the opportunities offered by the labor market or to engage in business or professional enterprise, there are a myriad of public and private institutions (city councils, councils, communities, peripheral regional administration agencies, financial institutions, religious bodies , ...) and collective actors (political parties, business organizations, professional associations, trade unions, cooperatives, irrigation communities, groups and networks of rural development, women's or youth, cultural / recreational associations, ...) whose goal is somehow involved in development strategies, accompanying the various individual initiatives, supporting with grants and economic incentives to entrepreneurs, providing services of various kinds, participating in leadership training or acting as real stars in those areas where individual initiatives are absent or lacking the necessary push to be the engine of development. Good relationship between collective actors, institutions and individuals-that entrepreneurs say, the system of "governance" - depends on the success of the development process in rural areas.