Agriculture

Primitive Subsistence Farming

This is a very old type of farming that is still practiced in a few areas ("pockets") of India.

Key Characteristics:

• ✓Land: It is done on small patches of land.
• ✓Tools: Farmers use very basic, primitive tools like a hoe, dao (a type of cutting tool), and digging sticks.
• ✓Labor: The work is done by the family or the community working together.
• ✓Dependency: This type of farming depends entirely on the monsoon for rain, the natural fertility of the soil, and other suitable environmental conditions.

The "Slash and Burn" Method:

• ✓This type of farming is famously known as 'slash and burn' agriculture.
• ✓Process:
  1. Farmers clear a patch of land by cutting down trees and bushes (slash).
  2. They then burn the cleared vegetation (burn). The ash provides nutrients to the soil.
  3. They grow cereals and other food crops to support their family.
  4. When the soil fertility decreases after a few years, the farmers shift and clear a fresh patch of land for cultivation.
• ✓Benefit: This shifting allows nature to replenish the fertility of the soil through natural processes.

Productivity:

• ✓The land productivity is low because farmers do not use fertilizers or other modern inputs to enrich the soil.

Intensive Subsistence Farming

This type of farming is practiced in areas that have high population pressure on the land—meaning many people depend on a small area of farmland.

Key Characteristics:

• ✓It is labour-intensive farming, requiring a lot of manual work.
• ✓To get the most food possible, farmers use high doses of biochemical inputs (like chemical fertilizers) and irrigation.

The Problem of Land Size:

• ✓The 'right of inheritance' (where land is passed down and divided among children) has led to land holdings becoming smaller and smaller with each generation, making them uneconomical.
• ✓Because there are often no other ways to earn a living, farmers continue to try and get the maximum output from their limited land. This puts enormous pressure on the agricultural land.

Commercial Farming

The main goal of this type of farming is to grow crops to sell in the market.

Key Characteristics:

• ✓The main feature is the use of higher doses of modern inputs to get higher productivity.
• ✓These inputs include High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides.
• ✓The level of commercialization is different in different places. For example, rice is a commercial crop in Haryana and Punjab, but in Odisha, it is a subsistence crop grown for personal use.

Plantation Farming:

• ✓A plantation is a type of commercial farming where a single crop is grown on a large area.
• ✓It acts as a link between agriculture and industry, as the crops grown are used as raw materials in factories.
• ✓Features of Plantations:
  ▪ They cover large tracts of land.
  ▪ They are capital-intensive, meaning they require a lot of money and machinery.
  ▪ They often use migrant labourers to do the work.
  ▪ A well-developed network of transport and communication is crucial for connecting the plantation areas, processing industries, and markets.
• ✓Important Plantation Crops in India: Tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana, etc. For instance, tea in Assam and North Bengal, and coffee in Karnataka are major plantation crops.

Rabi Crops

• ✓Sowing Season: Sown in winter from October to December.
• ✓Harvesting Season: Harvested in summer from April to June.
• ✓Important Crops: Wheat, barley, peas, gram, and mustard.
• ✓Key Regions: States in the north and north-west like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh are important for wheat and other rabi crops.
• ✓Favorable Factors: Winter rain from the western temperate cyclones helps these crops succeed. The Green Revolution in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh also played a huge role in the growth of these crops.

Kharif Crops

• ✓Sowing Season: Grown with the start of the monsoon in different parts of the country.
• ✓Harvesting Season: Harvested in September-October.
• ✓Important Crops: Paddy (rice), maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut, and soyabean.
• ✓Key Rice-Growing Regions: Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra (especially the Konkan coast), Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. Paddy has also recently become an important crop in Punjab and Haryana.
• ✓Special Case: In states like Assam, West Bengal, and Odisha, farmers grow three crops of paddy in a single year. These are called Aus, Aman, and Boro.

Zaid Season

• ✓Timing: This is a short season during the summer months, in between the Rabi and Kharif seasons.
• ✓Important Crops: Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables, and fodder crops.
• ✓Note on Sugarcane: Sugarcane is a unique crop as it takes almost a year to grow.

Grains

Food Crops other than Grains

Bhoodan - Gramdan Movement

This was a non-violent land reform movement started by Vinoba Bhave, whom Mahatma Gandhi had declared his spiritual heir. It is also known as the Blood-less Revolution.

The Story:

• ✓After Gandhiji's death, Vinoba Bhave undertook a padyatra (journey on foot) to spread his message.
• ✓At Pochampalli, Andhra Pradesh, some landless villagers demanded land. A landlord named Shri Ram Chandra Reddy suddenly offered 80 acres of his land to 80 landless villagers. This act was known as 'Bhoodan' (gift of land).
• ✓Later, as he traveled, some zamindars offered to distribute entire villages among the landless. This was known as 'Gramdan' (gift of a village).
• ✓Many landowners also donated land because they feared the upcoming land ceiling act (a law limiting land ownership).