Chapter: Agriculture

• Introduction

  • Definition: Primary activity growing crops, fruits, vegetables, flowers, and rearing livestock.
  • Economic Importance: Backbone of developing nations like India (approx. 2/3rd population dependent).
  • Prerequisites: Favourable topography of soil and climate.
  • Key Term: Agriculture (derived from Latin ager + cultura).
  • Related Sectors:
    • Primary activities: Agriculture, fishing, gathering.
    • Secondary activities: Manufacturing, processing.
    • Tertiary activities: Trade, transport, banking.

• Farm System

  • Inputs
    • Physical: Seeds, fertilizers, machinery, labour.
    • Human: Sunshine, temperature, soil, slope, rainfall.
  • Processes
    • Ploughing, sowing, irrigation, weeding, harvesting.
  • Outputs
    • Crops, wool, dairy, poultry products.

• Types of Farming

  • Subsistence Farming
    • Aim: Meet family needs.
    • Low technology, household labour.
    • Types:
      • Intensive Subsistence: High yield on small plots, heavy manual labour, more than one crop annually (e.g., monsoon regions of South/Southeast Asia).
      • Primitive Subsistence:
        • Shifting Cultivation (Slash and burn): Clear plot, burn vegetation, mix ash with soil. Known as Jhuming in North-East India.
        • Nomadic Herding: Herders move with animals for fodder and water (e.g., Sahara, Central Asia, parts of India like Rajasthan/JK).
  • Commercial Farming
    • Aim: Grow crops for market, high capital, machine use.
    • Types:
      • Commercial Grain Farming: Crops grown for commercial sale (e.g., Wheat, Maize in temperate grasslands of North America, Europe).
      • Mixed Farming: Land used for food/feed crops and livestock rearing (e.g., Europe, eastern USA, Argentina).
      • Plantations: Single-crop farming (tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana). Requires large labor and capital (e.g., tropical regions like rubber in Malaysia, coffee in Brazil, tea in India/Sri Lanka).

• Major Crops

  • Food Crops
    • Rice: Major staple food. Needs high temperature, high humidity, rainfall. Leading producers: China, India.
    • Wheat: Moderate temperature and rainfall during growing, bright sunshine at harvest. Leading producers: USA, Canada, Argentina, India.
    • Millets ("Coarse Grains"): Hardy crops, low rainfall, sandy soils. E.g., Jowar, Bajra, Ragi (India, Nigeria, China).
    • Maize ("Corn"): Moderate temp, rainfall, lots of sunshine. North America, Brazil, China, India.
    • Pulses: Leguminous crops (need less moisture, nitrogen fixers). Major producers: India.
  • Beverage Crops
    • Tea: Cool climate, well-distributed high rainfall. Hill slopes. Kenya, India, China, Sri Lanka.
    • Coffee: Warm and wet climate, well-drained loamy soil. Brazil, Columbia, India.
  • Fibre Crops
    • Cotton: High temperature, light rainfall, 210 frost-free days, bright sunshine. China, USA, India, Pakistan.
    • Jute ("Golden Fibre"): High temperature, heavy rainfall, humid climate. Flood plains. India, Bangladesh.

• Agricultural Development

  • Definition: Efforts to increase farm production to meet growing demand.
  • Strategies
    • Increasing cropped area, number of crops grown, improving irrigation, fertilizers, high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds.
    • Mechanization of agriculture.
  • Global Scenario
    • Developing countries (e.g., India): Small landholdings, focus on food security.
    • Developed countries (e.g., USA): Large farms, commercial scale, high mechanization.
  • Case Studies
    • A Farm in India (Adilabad, Bihar): Small farm (~1.5 hectares), HYV seeds from market, traditional tube well/rain irrigation, cooperative society guidance.
    • A Farm in the USA (Midwest, Iowa): Large farm (~300 hectares), farmer lives on farm, computer/satellite-aided machinery, chemical fertilizers applied scientifically.