JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 4 Agriculture
→ Three types of economic activities are involved in transformation from a plant to a finished product. These are primary, secondary and tertiary activities.
- Agriculture, fishing and gathering are examples of primary activities. It includes all those connected with extraction and production of natural resources.
- Manufacturing of steel, baking of bread and weaving of cloth are examples of secondary activity. It is concerned with the processing of the primary resources.
- Transport, trade, banking, insurance and advertising are examples of tertiary activities. These provide support to the primary and secondary sectors through services.
- In the world, 50 per cent of persons are engaged in agricultural activity. Two-thirds of India’s population is still dependent on agriculture.
- The land on which the crops are grown is known as arable land. Favourable topography of soil and climate are vital for agricultural activity.
→ Farm System:
- The important inputs in agriculture or farming are seeds, fertilisers, machinery and labour.
- Ploughing, sowing, irrigation, weeding and harvesting are other operations involved.
- The outputs from the system include crops, wool, dairy and poultry products.
→ Types of Farming:
Farming is categorised into two main types. These are subsistence farming and commercial farming.
→ Subsistence Farming:
- This type of farming is practised to meet the needs of the farmer’s family.
- Subsistence farming can be categorised as intensive subsistence and primitive subsistence farming.
→ Intensive Subsistence Farming:
- In this type, the farmer cultivates a small plot of land using simple tools and more labour.
- Rice is the main crop. Other crops include wheat, maize, pulses and oilseeds.
- It is prevalent in the thickly populated areas of the monsoon regions of south, southeast and east Asia.
→ Primitive Subsistence Farming:
- It can be categorised in shifting cultivation and nomadic herding.
- Shifting cultivation is also known as ‘slash and bum’ agriculture.
- It is practised in the thickly forested areas of Amazon basin, tropical Africa, parts of south-east Asia and north-east India.
- These are the areas of heavy rainfall and quick regeneration of vegetation.
- Crops like maize, yam, potatoes and cassava are grown.
- Once the soil loses its fertility, the land is abandoned and the cultivator moves to a new plot.
→ Nomadic herding is the type of farming where herdsmen move from place to place with their animals for fodder and water, along defined routes. Due to climatic constraints and terrain, this type of movement arises.
- Commonly reared animals are sheep, camel, yak and goats.
- They provide milk, meat, wool, hides and other products to the herders and their families.
- It is practised in the semi-arid and arid regions of Sahara, Central Asia and some parts of India, like Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.
→ Commercial Farming:
- In this type of farming, crops are grown and animals are reared for sale in market.
- Commercial farming is categorised in three types: commercial grain farming, mixed farming and plantation agriculture.
→ Commercial grain farming crops are grown for commercial purpose.
- Commercially grown grains are wheat and maize.
- Major areas are temperate grasslands of North America, Europe and Asia.
→ Mixed farming:
- In this type of farming, the land is used for growing food and fodder crops and rearing livestock,
- Major areas are in Europe, eastern USA, Argentina, south-east
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
→ Plantation agriculture:
- In this type of farming, single crop of tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana or cotton are grown.
- Large amount of labour and capital are required. Transport network is essential for such farming.
- Majorly they are found in the tropical regions of the world. Some of the examples are rubber in Malaysia, coffee in Brazil, tea in India and Sri Lanka.
→ Major Crops:
- Major food crops are wheat, rice, maize and millets. Jute and cotton are fibre crops. Important beverage crops are tea and coffee.
- Crops are grown to meet the requirements of the growing population.
→ Rice:
- It is the major food crop of the world.
- It is the staple diet of the tropical and sub¬tropical regions.
- China, India, Japan, Sri Lanka and Egypt are the major producers of rice.
- It needs high temperature, high humidity and rainfall. It grows best in alluvial clayey soil.
→ Wheat:
- It requires moderate temperature and rainfall during growing season and bright sunshine at the time of harvest.
- USA, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and India are the leading producers of wheat. In India it is grown in winter.
→ Millets:
- Millets are also known as coarse grains. It includes jowar, bajra and ragi.
- It can be grown on less fertile and sandy soils. It needs low rainfall and high to moderate temperature and adequate rainfall.
- Leading producers are India, Nigeria, China and Niger.
→ Maize:
- It requires moderate temperature, rainfall and lots of sunshine and fertile soil.
- North America, Brazil, China, Russia, Canada, India, and Mexico are the producers of maize.
→ Cotton:
- It requires high temperature, light rainfall, 210 frost-free days and bright sunshine for its growth.
- It grows best on black and alluvial soils.
- The leading producers of cotton are China, USA, India, Pakistan, Brazil and Egypt.
→ Jute:
- It is also known as the ‘Golden Fibre’.
- It requires high temperature, heavy rainfall and humid climate and grows well on alluvial soil.
- The leading producers of jute are India and Bangladesh.
→ Coffee:
- It requires warm and wet climate and well drained loamy soil.
- The leading producer is Brazil followed by Columbia and India.
→ Tea:
- It requires cool climate and well-distributed high rainfall throughout the year for the growth of its tender leaves.
- Kenya, India, China, Sri Lanka produce the best quality tea in the world.
→ Agricultural Development:
- It refers to efforts made to increase farm production in order to meet the growing demand of increasing population.
- Another aspect of agricultural development is mechanisation of agriculture.
- The major aim of agricultural development is to increase food security.
- Developing countries which has large populations usually practice intensive agriculture.
- Larger holdings are more suitable for commercial agriculture as in USA, Canada and Australia.