Agriculture:
- The science or art of cultivation and raising crops on the soil is called agriculture or farming.
Agriculture System:
Agriculture is like a system. The following are the components of the agriculture system:
- Input
- Process
- Output
Input:
- Human inputs:
- Seed
- Fertilizer
- Machinery
- labor
- Natural Inputs:
- Sunshine
- Rainfall
- Soil
- Temperature
- Slope
Process:
- Ploughing
- Sowing
- Irrigation
- Weeding
- Harvesting
Output:
- Crops
- wool
- Dairy
- Poultry
Types of farming:
Based on the geographical condition, demand, labor, and level of technology used:
Farming can be divided into two major types:
- Subsistence farming
- Intensive Subsistence farming
- Primitive Subsistence farming
- Shifting Cultivation
- Nomadic Herding
- Commercial Farming
- Commercial Grain Farming
- Mixed Farming
- Plantation Agriculture
Based on moisture, farming can be classified into:
- Irrigated Farming
- Protected Irrigation farming
- Productive irrigation
- Rainfed Farming
- Dryland farming
- Wetland farming
Subsistence farming:
Farming is done to meet the current need of the farmer's family, farm output is not used to sell in the market.
It includes:
- Low level of technology
- Use of household labor
Intensive Subsistence farming:
The following are the characteristics of intensive subsistence farming:
- Small plot land
- Using simple tools
- more labor than required
- As the climate and soil permit more than one crop per years
It is generally done in thickly populated areas of monsoon regions:
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia
- East Asia
Shifting Cultivation:
It is also called "Slash and burn" cultivation.
It is practiced in thickly forested areas of the Amazon basin, tropical Africa, part of southeast Asia, and northeast India.
Areas having:
- Heavy rainfall
- Quick generation of vegetation
- Plants of land are cleared by felling the trees and burning them
- Major crops are maize and potato
- After land loses fertility; it is left out to naturally recover fertility and move another place for cultivation.
Shifting cultivation has different names around the world:
- Jhumming-North East India
- Milpa-Mexico and Central northern America
- Roca-Brazil
- Conuco-Venezuela
- Masole - Central Africa
- Ray-Vietnam
- Ladang-Malaysia
Nomadic Herding:
- It is practiced in the semi-arid and arid regions of Sahara, Central Asia, and part of India in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh.
- herdsman moves from place to place with their animals for fodder and water within defined areas.
- For Example, sheep, camels, and goats.
- they provide milk, meat, wool, and hides.
Commercial farming:
- Crops are grown and animals are reared for selling purposes.
- Large areas and large capital are used
- Most of the work is done by machinery
Commercial grain farming:
- Crops are grown for commercial purposes.
- Major crops-wheat and maize
- Major areas; temperate grassland of North America, Europe, and Asia.
- Climate does not allow to grow crops more than one crop in a year.
Mixed cropping:
- The land is used for growing food and fodder crops and rearing livestock in the same field.
- These types of crops are practiced in:
- The USA, Argentina in South America, southeast Australia, Europe, and South Africa.
Plantation crops:
Single crops such as tea, coffee, sugar cane, cashew, rubber, bananas, and cotton are grown.
Large labor and capital are required
- The transport network is essential for such farming.
- Areas: Tropical region of the world
- for example,
- Rubber crops in Malaysia
- Coffee crops in Brazil
- Tea plantation crops in India
Protective irrigation farming:
- irrigation is generally used to protect the crops from the adverse effect of soil moisture deficiency
- irrigation used as a supplementary
Productive irrigation farming:
- irrigation is used to provide sufficient soil moisture in the cropping season to achieve higher productivity
- water input per area usage is higher than the protective irrigation farming area.
Dryland farming:
- this farming practice is being done where rainfall is less than 75 cm per year. the major crops grown in dryland farming are Ragi, Bajra, moong, gram, etc.
- Wetland farming ;
- rainfall excess as compared to soil moisture requirement by plants during the rainy season
- This area is faced with flood and soil erosion problems.
- in this area, water-intensive crops are grown such as rice, jute, sugar cane, etc.
Try to solve the following questions:
- With the help of a map, indicate the principal areas of dryland farming in the country and account for farmers’ suicides mainly in those areas. ( UPSC 2015, 200 words, 15 marks)
- Explain the significance of dry farming in drought-prone areas of India. (UPSC geography optional paper 2 2019, 10 Marks)
You may like also:
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon