Chapter 4 AGRICULTURE

Farm System

Agriculture, a primary economic activity, involves cultivating crops, fruits, vegetables, flowers, and rearing livestock. It is a system comprising inputs like seeds, fertilizers, machinery, and labor, followed by operations such as ploughing, sowing, irrigation, weeding, and harvesting. The outputs include crops, wool, dairy, and poultry products. Favorable topography, soil, and climate are essential for agricultural activity, with arable land being crucial for crop cultivation.

Types Of Farming

Subsistence Farming

Subsistence farming is practiced primarily to meet the needs of the farmer's family, using low levels of technology and household labor, resulting in small outputs. It is further divided into:

• Intensive Subsistence Farming: Practiced in densely populated monsoon regions, it involves cultivating small plots with simple tools and high labor input. Rice is the main crop, alongside wheat, maize, pulses, and oilseeds.
• Primitive Subsistence Farming: Includes shifting cultivation (slash and burn) in forested areas with heavy rainfall, where land is cleared and used until its fertility declines, after which cultivators move to new plots. Nomadic herding, practiced in semi-arid and arid regions, involves herdsmen moving with their animals for pasture and water, providing milk, meat, wool, and hides.

Commercial Farming

Commercial farming involves growing crops and rearing animals for sale in the market, utilizing large areas of land and significant capital, with extensive use of machinery. It includes:

• Commercial Grain Farming: Practiced in sparsely populated temperate grasslands, where large farms grow crops like wheat and maize for commercial purposes, often with a single growing season due to severe winters.
• Mixed Farming: Combines growing food and fodder crops with rearing livestock, practiced in regions like Europe, the USA, Argentina, and Australia.
• Plantation Agriculture: A type of commercial farming focused on a single crop like tea, coffee, sugarcane, or rubber, requiring substantial labor and capital, with produce often processed on-site or nearby.

Major Crops

Rice

Rice is a major global food crop and a staple in tropical and subtropical regions, requiring high temperatures, humidity, rainfall, and fertile, water-retentive alluvial soil. China and India are leading producers.

Wheat

Wheat needs moderate temperatures, rainfall during growth, and sunshine at harvest, thriving in well-drained loamy soil. It is widely grown in countries like the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, and India, primarily during winter in India.

Millets

Millets, or coarse grains, can grow on less fertile and sandy soils. They are hardy crops requiring low rainfall and moderate temperatures. Jowar, bajra, and ragi are grown in India.

Maize

Maize requires moderate temperatures, rainfall, ample sunshine, and well-drained fertile soil. It is cultivated in North America, Brazil, China, Russia, Canada, India, and Mexico.

Cotton

Cotton cultivation needs high temperatures, light rainfall, at least 210 frost-free days, and bright sunshine. It grows best on black and alluvial soils. China, USA, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and Egypt are major producers, and it serves as a primary raw material for the textile industry.

Jute

Known as the 'Golden Fibre', jute thrives in high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and humid climates, growing best on alluvial soil. India and Bangladesh are the leading producers.

Coffee

Coffee cultivation requires a warm and wet climate, well-drained loamy soil, and preferably hill slopes. Brazil is the top producer, followed by Columbia and India.

Tea

Tea is a beverage crop grown on plantations, needing a cool climate and well-distributed rainfall throughout the year for its tender leaves. Kenya, India, China, and Sri Lanka are renowned for producing high-quality tea.

Agricultural Development

Agricultural development aims to increase farm production to meet the demands of a growing population. This is achieved through expanding cultivated areas, increasing crop variety, improving irrigation, using fertilizers and high-yielding seeds, and mechanization. The ultimate goal is to enhance food security.

A Farm In India

Munna Lal, a small farmer in Uttar Pradesh, cultivates about 1.5 hectares of land, growing wheat, rice, and pulses. He uses high-yielding seeds, manure, and relies on advice from friends, elders, and agricultural officers. He uses rented tractors and tube wells for farming and has buffaloes and hens, selling milk to a cooperative. He also obtains loans from cooperative societies for seeds and implements. Many Indian farmers lack storage facilities, forcing them to sell produce at unfavorable prices.

A Farm In The Usa

In contrast, the average farm size in the USA is much larger (around 250 hectares), with farmers often residing on their land. They grow commercial crops like corn, soybean, wheat, cotton, and sugarbeet. Farmers like Joe Horan use advanced technology, including tractors, seed drills, and computer-aided satellite imagery for precise management of soil nutrients, irrigation, and pest control. They maintain soil health through scientific fertilizing and utilize automated storage facilities, operating more like businessmen than traditional peasant farmers.

Exercises

The chapter concludes with exercises covering various aspects of agriculture. Questions prompt recall of definitions (agriculture, shifting cultivation, plantation), identification of factors influencing agriculture, and comparison of farming types. Reasons for practices like agriculture being a primary activity in India and regional crop variations are explored. Distinctions between primary and tertiary activities, and subsistence versus intensive farming, are required. Practical activities include identifying soil types for different crops and comparing the lifestyles of farmers in India and the USA through visual resources. A crossword puzzle tests knowledge of agricultural terms and crops.