Geography Chapter 4 Agriculture - Notes & Study Material

Contents

1 Important Terms
2 Important Notes

Important Terms

Primary Activities: Primary activities are those activities which involve direct extraction and production of natural resources.

Secondary Activities: Secondary activities are concerned with the processing of natural resources.

Tertiary Activities: These are the economic activities that provide services to the consumers by providing support to primary and secondary sectors.

Mixed Farming: This is a type of commercial farming under which land is used to grow food grains and fodder crops and for animal husbandry.

Plantations : A type of commercial farming in which only a single crop is grown at a time. Examples include- tea, coffee, rubber, banana, cotton, cashew, sugarcane, etc.

Food Crops: Crops such as wheat, rice, millets, maize, etc., are food crops.

Fibre Crops: Crops such as jute and cotton are fibre crops. They are not used as food.

Beverage Crops: Tea and coffee are included in beverage crops.

Nomadic Herding: In nomadic herding, herdsmen move from place to place with their animals for fodder and water along defined routes. Sheeps, camels, yaks and goats are most commonly reared by herdsmen.

Green Revolution: Green revolution refers to the tremendous increase in agricultural production which was possible due to the adoption of new agricultural strategies.

Organic Farming: Organic farming is a sustainable farming system which maintains the long term fertility of the soil and uses less of the earth’s finite resources to produce high quality nutritious food.

Important Notes

The word agriculture is derived from the Latin words ‘agri’ and culture’. The word ‘agri’ means soil and ‘culture’ means cultivation. Thus, agriculture is the art of cultivating or tilling the soil and raising crops.

Agriculture is the most widely adopted occupation of the humans because:

(i) Agriculture is one of the primitive sources of obtaining food.

(ii) Humans used to live in forests or open lands before the colonial period.

(iii) In most of the countries, majority of people still live in villages and are dependent upon agricultural practices for their subsistence.

The main features of Indian agriculture are:

(i) Agriculture provides employment to nearly two- third of India’s workforce.

(ii) Agriculture in India is mostly intensive subsistence type.

(iii) India has two main agricultural seasons kharif and rabi.

(iv) Irrigation is essential because of uneven rainfall

The climatic conditions required for the growth of food crops – Wheat, Rice, Maize and Millets are:

(i) Rice grows best in alluvial clayey soil, which can retain water. It also needs high temperature, high humidity and rainfall.

(ii) Wheat grows best in well-drained loamy soil. It requires moderate temperature and rainfall during growing season and bright sunshine at the time of harvest.

(ii) Maize requires well-drained fertile soils. It also requires moderate temperature, rainfall and lot of sunshine.

(iv) Jowar, Bajra and Ragi are called millets. They are also known as coarse grains. They can grow on less fertile and sandy soils. They need low rainfall and high to moderate temperature.

The Climatic conditions required for Wheat Cultivation

(i) It grows well in the areas where moderate type of precipitation occurs.

(ii) In the growing season, the climate should be cool and moist and warm and it should be dry at the time of ripening.

The types of soil in which wheat can grow best are :

(i) It is grown in well-drained alluvial soil.

(ii) Wheat grows well in fertile loamy soil.

(iii) Medium and heavy textured with lime content soil is good for the growth of wheat.

Distribution of Wheat: It is mainly grown in Australia, Argentina, China, India, Russia, Ukraine and USA. In India, wheat is grown in winter season, in north western, north and central areas. Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar are the main producers of wheat.

Agricultural development: Agricultural development refers to the increase in agricultural production through the introduction of better technologies, facilities and methods.Agricultural development is required:(i) To fulfil the growing demand of the population.(ii) It is also required for the economic development of country. It is done by increasing the exports of food grains.

Agriculture inputs are of two types :

(i) Physical Inputs: Sunshine, rainfall, temperature soil, etc.

(ii) Human Inputs: Labour, machinery, chemicals, fertilizers, storage, etc.

The main features of Indian agriculture are:

(i) Agriculture provides employment to nearly two- third of India’s workforce.

(ii) Agriculture in India is mostly intensive subsistence type.

(iii) India has two main agricultural seasons kharif and rabi.

(iv) Irrigation is essential because of uneven rainfall.

In spite of significant developments, Indian agriculture suffers from certain problems

It is a fact that there are significant developments in Indian agriculture, but still it is very low compared to other countries.

The main reasons for this are :

(i) Economic Factors: The Indian farmer does not have much capital for investing on tractors, HYV seeds, fertilizers, etc. So, in order to increase his production, he is dependent on natural factors. Many a times, these factors become adverse which results in crop failure.

(ii) Environmental Factors : The Indian agriculture Completely depends on monsoons. The nature of monsoon is very erratic. Period of rainfall is limited and uncertain. This affects agricultural development.

(iii) Technological Factors : Indian agricultural technique is very old and inefficient. Only one third area is under irrigation.

(iv) Other Factors: The increasing population is one of the important factors that affect the agriculture badly. As the population needs place for living, so the cropped land is occupied for construction of houses. Due to this, the area under cultivation is becoming low day-by-day.

The Importance of Agriculture in Indian Economy

(i) Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy because 67% of our population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture.

(ii) It provides raw materials for the industries.

(iii) India earns foreign exchange by exporting agricultural products.

(iv) It contributes 29% to the gross domestic product.

(v) It provides food to over 1027 million of population.

Three Characteristics of the shifting Agriculture

(i) In shifting cultivation, a patch of land is cleared by cutting and burning the trees.

(i) Farming depends upon monsoons, natural fertility of the soil and suitability of the other environmental conditions.

(ii) Per hectare productivity is very low, as farmers do not use manure, fertilizers or other modern inputs.

Four features of primitive subsistence farming

(i) Primitive subsistence agriculture is practised on small patches of land with the help of primitive tools such as hoe, doe and digging sticks with the help of family/community.

(ii) This type of farming depends upon the monsoon, natural fertility of the soil and suitability of other environmental conditions for the crops to be grown.

(iii) Under this type of farming, farmers produce crops for self-consumption.

(iv) Per hectare output of land is very low.

Difference Between subsistence and commercial farming

Subsistence farming	Commercial farming
The main aim is to fulfil the needs of farmer’s family .	Crops are grown and animals are reared for sale in market.
Traditional methods, low level of technology and household labour are employed to produce a small output	Most of the work is done by machines.
Subsistence farming is done on small level.	The area cultivated and the amount of capital used is large.
Intensive subsistence agriculture and primitive subsistence agriculture are two types of such farming. Primitive subsistence agriculture can be further divided into shifting agriculture and nomadic herding.	Commercial farming includes commercial grain farming, mixed farming and plantation agriculture.

The lifestyle of Farmers of India

(i) The Indian farmers generally lead a poor life.

(ii) Most of the farmers grow at least two crops in a year.

(iii) They still use traditional methods of farming. Some rich farmers plough their fields with the help of tractor.

(iv) Generally, all the family members of Indian farmers help him in various farm activities.

(v) They use pump sets to irrigate their field. The entire held is divided into small plots to grow different crops at a time.

(vi) Many Indian farmers take loan from banks or Agricultural Co-operative Societies to buy HYV seeds and implements.

(vii) Many farmers sell their produce in the nearby mandis (Wholesale Markets).

(viii) Some of the farmers sell their produce to the middlemen or to the cooperative societies.

The lifestyle of farmers in the U.S.A. are

(i) American farmers are very much advanced in their agricultural activities.

(ii) They are very commercial in their farm activities.

(iii) They plan a scientific fertiliser programme.

(iv) They link their computers with the satellite which gives the precise picture of their field and the climatic conditions.

(v) This also helps them to use chemical fertilisers and pesticides whenever required.

(vi) They use tractors, seed drills, levellers, combined harvesters and threshers to perform various agricultural operations.

(vii) They send the samples of soil to the soil testing laboratories to check the nutrients’ percentage.

(viii) Grains are stored in automatic grain storage system and dispatched to market agencies.

The two fibre crops are Jute and Cotton. The climatic conditions required for their growth are:

Jute

(a) It grows well in alluvial and loamy soil.(b) It requires moderate temperature around 22″C to 27C.(c) It requires heavy rainfall of around 150 cm a year (d) It requires humid climate.

Cotton

(a) It grows best on black(b) It requires high temperature, i.e. around 22 ºC to 40°C.(c) It requires average rainfall of around 60 to 100 cm a year.(d) It requires 210 frost free nights.

Difference between Food Crop and Cash Crop

Food Crop	Cash Crop
Crops which form the basic food of the people are called food- crops.	Crops that are grown to be sold or exported are called cash crops.
They include cereals and pulses.	They include fibre crops and beverages.
For example: Wheat, rice, millets. They are grown commercially or for subsistence.	For example: Cotton, jute, coffee. They are grown commercially and earn ready cash for the farmers.

The need for irrigation is more prominent in India.

Irrigation is essential for increasing the crop production.

However, there are certain climatic factors which make it essential

(a) Uneven rainfall : Though the rainfall is abundant in India, it is not uniformly distributed over the year. Most of it occurs over a period of four months. Besides this, it is also not evenly distributed over the whole country.

(i) Erratic monsoon: The monsoons are quite erratic. Sometimes, they are late, sometimes inadequate and sometimes there are long dry spells.

The Differences between Subsistence farming and Intensive farming

Subsistence farming

(i) In subsistence farming, farmer produces crop to meet the needs of the farmer’s family.

(i) Low level of technology and household labour is used to produce small output.

Intensive farming

(i) In intensive farming, farmer produces crop for the purpose of selling it in the market.

(ii) Scientific technique of farming is used along with less labour.