Agriculture

Subsistence farming is a type of farming that aims to cultivate crops for consumption by the farmer and his family. The farmer has a small piece of land on which he and his family works. Two features of this type of farming are:

1. It is characterised by the use of simple techniques, family labour and a poor standard of living.
2. Any surplus crop could be exchanged for goods or stored for future use in times of poor harvest.

Two areas where commercial farming is practised are

1. United States
2. Egypt

The advantages of commercial farming are:

1. Highly mechanised.
2. Employs less labour.
3. Provides the lowest cost of production.
4. Creates employment opportunities for local people.

Commercial farming is of two types

1. Extensive commercial farming — It implies employment of greater area of land in proportion to capital and labour. Land may be left fallow for a year or two to enable it to regain its fertility. The method may be somewhat wasteful and the yield per hectare may be less.
2. Intensive commercial farming — Intensive commercial farming is practised where farm land is of high value. Population pressure reduces the size of individual holdings, as is the case in the delta regions of the great rivers of Asia. This type of farming has, therefore, developed mainly in the densely populated countries with limited arable land.

Plantation crops are those which are cultivated on extensive scale like tea, coffee and rubber.

Two characteristics of plantation farming are:

1. These crops are not consumed for food.
2. They are grown for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption.

Green Revolution refers to the global increase in agricultural productivity that was brought by introduction of chemical fertilizers, synthetic herbicides and pesticides, high-yield crops, and the method of multiple cropping. It helped the agriculture industry to produce much larger quantities of food. This increase in productivity made it possible to feed the growing human population.

The drawbacks of Green Revolution are:

1. The Green Revolution used a lot of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
2. These chemicals were very toxic and not safe for humans and other organism.
3. The use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide created lot of pollution.
4. Excessive use of fertilizers made soil alkaline and unfit for cultivation.
5. Chemical fertilisers polluted groundwater.

Green Revolution in late sixties brought a turning point in agriculture. As a result the productivity of global agriculture increased drastically. This increase in productivity made it possible to feed the growing human population. There was introduction of High yielding Varieties of crop seeds. This helped a lot to prevent starvation in many developing countries. The Green Revolution also improved the rural infrastructure and brought about rural electrification.

Subsistence agriculture is carried out in most parts of India.

Tea crop is called a plantation crop.

Shifting type of agriculture was carried out in north-east India.

The northern plains of USA are famous for growing wheat.

Jute is a cash crop.

Subsistence farming is done on a small piece of land to support the farmer and his family. Since the land is small and farmer has poor standard of living, only traditional tools are used in subsistence farming.

Plantation farming is done on a very extensive scale. The size of plantation estates is generally very large. Hence, it is labour intensive.

The Green Revolution was a turning point in agriculture. It led to the increase in global productivity. It brought many changes in farming which led to increase in productivity. These changes were:

• introduction of High Yielding Varieties
• use of chemical fertilizers
• Use of synthetic herbicides and pesticides

rubber

wet regions

modern tools

Less population

extensive commercial farming

commercial farming

intensive commercial farming

rubber and coffee

fragmentation of holdings

polluted groundwater

cash crops

wastage of seeds

tea

dibbling