Agriculture

• 50% of persons are engaged in agricultural activity. Two-thirds of India’s population is agricultural activity. Two-thirds of India’s population is still dependent on agriculture.
• Favourable topography of soil and climate are vital for agricultural activity. The land on which the crops for agricultural activity.
• Crops are grown is known as arable land.

Agriculture – Art of cultivation. Sericulture – Commercial rearing of silk worms. Pisciculture – Breeding of fish. Viticulture – Cultivation of grapes. Horticulture - Growing vegetables, flowers and fruits for commercial use

Farm System

• Input – Seeds, fertilizers, machinery.
• Operation – Ploughing, sowing, irrigation, weeding and harvesting.
• Output – crops, wool, dairy and poultry products.

Land Use Categories

• Forest: Area under actual forest cover is different from area classified as forest. Area which the Government has identified and demarcated for forest growth.
• Barren and Wastelands: Barren hilly terrains, desert lands, ravines, etc. Brought under cultivation with the available technology.
• Land put to Non-agricultural Uses: Settlement, Infrastructure, Industries etc…
• Area under Permanent Pastures and Grazing Lands: Most land owned by Panchayat or Government. Common Property Resources.
• Area under Miscellaneous Tree Crops and Groves (Not included in Net Sown Area): land under orchards and fruit trees. Much land is private owner.
• Culturable Wasteland: left fallow (uncultivated) for more than five years. brought under cultivation after improving it through reclamation practices.
• Current Fallow: left without cultivation for one or less than one agricultural year.
• Fallow other than Current Fallow: uncultivated for more than a year but less than five years.
• Net Area Sown: crops are sown and harvested.

Agriculture land use in India

• Purely land based activity.
• Quality of land has a direct bearing on the productivity of agriculture.
• Productive factor, land ownership has a social value and serves as a security for credit, natural hazards or life contingencies, and also adds to the social status.
• Land-saving Technology - raise the yield of any particular crop per unit area of land which increase the total output per unit area.
• Advantage of the latter kind of technology is that along with increasing output from limited land

Cropping Intensity = GCA x 100

                NSA

Types of Farming

Subsistence Farming

• Low levels of technology and household labour are used to produce on small output.

Intensive subsistence agriculture

• Labour-Intensive Farming.
• Biochemical inputs and irrigation are used for obtaining higher production.

Primitive Subsistence Agriculture

• Few pockets of India, help of primitive tools like hoe, dao and digging sticks, and family/community labour.
• Depends upon monsoon, natural fertility of the soil and suitability of other environmental conditions.
• Does not use fertilisers or other modern inputs
• Shifting cultivation (‘slash and burn).
• Amazon basin, tropical Africa, parts of southeast Asia and Northeast India.
• Heavy rainfall and quick regeneration of vegetation.
• Other Names, Jhumming - North-East India Milpa –Mexico, Roca - Brazil.  Ladang – Malaysia, Conuco - Venzuela, Masole - Central Africa, Ray – Vietnam, Bewar or Dahiya - Madhya Pradesh, Podu or Penda - Andhra Pradesh, Pama Dabi or Koman or Bringa - Odisha, Kumari - Western Ghats, Valre or Waltre - South-eastern Rajasthan, Khil - Himalayan belt, Kuruwa - Jharkhand.
• Nomadic herding
• Herdsmen move from place to place with their animals (Sheep, Camel, Yak) for fodder and water, along defined routes. response to climatic constraints and terrain.
• Sahara, central Asia & some part of India like Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan.

Commercial farming

• Crops are grown and animals are reared for sale in market.
• High dose of Modern input to obtain high productivity.
• Commercialisation of agriculture varies from one region to another. Ex: Rice is a commercial crop in Haryana and Punjab, but Odisha, it is a subsistence crop.

Commercial grain farming

• Only single crop can be grown for commercial purpose. Ex: Wheat & Maize.
• Temperate grasslands of North America, Europe and Asia.

Mixed farming

• Growing food and fodder crops.
• Europe, eastern USA, Argentina, southeast Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Plantation Agriculture

• Single crop is grown on a large area.
• Tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana or cotton are grown processed on the farm itself or in nearby factories.
• Processing industries and markets plays an important role in the development of plantations.
• All the produce is used as raw material in respective industries.
• Rubber in Malaysia, coffee in Brazil, Tea in Sri Lanka. India – Tea in Assam & North Bengal, Coffee in Market.

Land-use Changes in India

• Size of the economy - pressure on land will increase with time and marginal lands would come under use.
• The composition of the economy - secondary and the tertiary sectors usually grow much faster than the primary sector. Result in a gradual shift of land from agricultural uses to non-agricultural uses.
• Agricultural activities reduce over time, the pressure on land for agricultural activities does not decline
• Share of population declines much more slowly compared to the decline in the sector’s share in GDP.
• Number of people that the agricultural sector has to feed is increasing day by day.

• Increase
• Forest - Increase in the demarcated area under forest rather than an actual increase.
• Area Under Non-agricultural use - due to the changing structure of Indian economy (Growth of Industrial & Service Sectors).
• Current Fallow - Variability of rainfall and cropping cycles.
• Net Sown Ares - use of culturable waste land for agricultural purpose.
• Decrease
• Wastelands and Culturable wastelands – Used for Agriculture & Non Agriculture Purpose.
• Land under pastures and grazing lands - expansion of cultivation on common pasture lands

Cropping Pattern

Rabi crops

• Sown in winter from October to December & Harvested in Summer from April to June.
• Wheat, barley, peas, gram and mustard.
• Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
• Precipitation due to western temperate cyclones. success of the green revolution.

Kharif Crop

• Onset of monsoon in different parts of the country and these are harvested in September-October.
• Paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut and soyabean.
• Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, particularly the (Konkan coast) along with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• Assam, West Bengal and Odisha, three crops (Aus, Aman and Boro) of paddy are grown Major Crops.

Zaid Crop

• Between the rabi and the kharif seasons, short season during the summer.
• Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops. Sugarcane takes almost a year to grow.

Cropping Season	Major Crops Cultivated
	Northern States	Southern States
Kharif June-September	Rice, Cotton,  Bajra, Maize, Jowar, Tur	Rice, Maize,  Ragi, Jowar, Groundnut
Rabi October-March	Wheat, Gram,  Rapeseeds and Mustard, Barley	Rice, Maize,  Ragi, Groundnut, Jowar
Zaid April-June	Vegetables,  Fruits, fodder	Rice,  Vegetables, Fodder

Classification of Farming

Basis of main source of moisture for crops – Irrigated and Rainfed (barani).

• Based on the objective of irrigation.
• Protective - protect the crops from adverse effects of soil moisture deficiency.
• Productive - provide sufficient soil moisture to achieve high productivity. Water input in higher than protective.
• Rainfed farming is classified on the basis of adequacy of soil moisture during cropping season into
• Dryland farming - Rainfall less than 75 cm. Ex: ragi, bajra, moong, gram and guar (fodder crops)
• Wetland farming - rainfall is in excess of soil moisture requirement of plants during rainy season. face flood and soil erosion hazards. Ex: Rice, jute and sugarcane
• Practice aquaculture in the fresh water bodies.