Types Of Farming

Question 1

Primitive Subsistence Agriculture

Answer 1

• -> Small patches of land
• -> Primitive tools like how, Rao and digging sticks
• -> Family/community labour
• -> Farming depends on
  - monsoon
  - natural fertility of soil
  - suitability of environmental conditions to the crops grown

–> land productivity is low - as fertilizers and other modern inputs are not used.

Question 2

Shifting Cultivation

Answer 2

• -> clear a patch of land
• -> produce cereals and other food crops to sustain their family
• -> when soil fertility decreases, the farmers shift and clear a fresh patch of land

Advantages:
> It allows nature to replenish the fertility of soil through natural processes.

Question 3

What is shifting cultivation called in :

• North-eastern states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya
• Manipur
• Bastar district of Chattisgarh and Andaman and Nicobar

Answer 3

• -> Jhumming
• -> Pamlou
• -> Dipa

Question 4

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Answer 4

• -> practised in areas of ‘high population pressure’ on land
• -> labour intensive
• -> high doses of biochemical inputs are used
• -> higher productivity

Question 5

Right of Inheritance

Answer 5

• -> leading to division of land
• -> over successive generations
• -> has rendered land- holding size uneconomical
• -> Farmers continue to take maximum output
• -> from limited land
• -> in the absence of alternative souce of livelihood

Thus, there is enormous pressure on agricultural land

Question 6

Commercial Agriculture

Answer 6

–> main characteristic of this type of farming is higher doses of modern inputs
Eg. - HYV seeds
- chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides
–> in order to obtain higher productivity
–> the degree of commercialisation of agriculture varies from place to place

Question 7

Plantation Agriculture

Answer 7

In this type of farming, a single crop is grown over a large area.

• -> The plantation has an interface of Agriculture and Industry.
• -> Plantations
  - cover large tracts of land
  - using capital intensive inputs
  - with the help of migrant laborers
• -> All the produce is used as raw material in respective industries.
• -> Since, the production is mainly for markets
  - a well developed network of transport and communication
  - connecting the plantation areas > processing jndustries > market
  - plays an important role in the development of plantations

Question 8

Important plantation crops in India

Answer 8

Tea, coffee, rubber, banana, sugercane etc.

• • Tea in Assam and North Bengal
• • Coffee in Karnataka

Question 9

Rabi crops

Answer 9

Time period

• sown in winter from October to December
• harvested in summer from April to June

Examples
- wheat, gram, pea, mustard, linseed, barley

Major states
- North and North-west… UP, Punjab, Haryana.

Factors that helped the growth of Rabi:

• Availability of precipitation during the winter months due to the Western temperate cyclones
• Green revolution

Question 10

Kharif Crops

Answer 10

Time period

• grown with the onset of monsoon
• harvested in Sep-Oct

Examples
- paddy, maize, soybean, groundnut, cotton, Jowar, Bajra, jute

Question 11

Zaid crops

Answer 11

In between the Rabi and kharif seasons, there is a short season during the summer months known as Zaid.
Examples
- watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops.

Question 12

How much time does sugarcane takes to grow?

Answer 12

A whole year