Chapter 5: Agriculture and Farming Systems

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering primary activities, types of farming, cropping seasons, agricultural processes, and farming development concepts.

Agriculture

The cultivation of soil for growing crops and the rearing of livestock for food, wool, and other products; also referred to as farming and classified as a primary activity.

Primary activities

Human occupations involved with the extraction or production of natural resources, including agriculture, fishing, food gathering, hunting, lumbering, and herding.

Secondary activities

Activities connected with the production of finished goods by processing raw materials obtained from nature, such as manufacturing textiles, bread, or automobiles.

Tertiary activities

Occupations concerned with providing support services, such as transport, trade, banking, insurance, education, hospitality, health services, and advertising.

Relief

The landscape pattern of an area; flat terrains like plains, valleys, and deltas are best suited for crops, whereas hilly areas are better suited for cattle rearing and crops requiring well-drained soil.

Subsistence farming

Farming carried out by a farmer to satisfy the needs of their family alone, using simple methods and traditional tools with barely any surplus left over for sale.

Primitive subsistence farming

A category of subsistence farming where farmers practice herding alongside crop cultivation to meet personal needs; it includes nomadic farming and shifting cultivation.

Nomadic farming

A farming practice where herdsmen move from one place to another with their families and livestock in search of pastures, fodder, and water.

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of herders along with their livestock, such as moving from plains to mountain pastures in summer and returning to the plains in winter.

Shifting cultivation

An agricultural practice, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture, where a forest plot is cleared by cutting and burning vegetation, cultivated for a couple of years, and abandoned when soil fertility declines.

Intensive subsistence farming

A type of farming in which a cultivator works a small plot of land using simple tools and a large amount of labour, mainly practiced in densely populated regions with fragmented landholdings.

Commercial farming

Farming in which crops are cultivated and animals are reared primarily for sale in the market to generate profit, characterized by large capital investment and extensive machinery.

Commercial grain farming

The large-scale commercial cultivation of grains like wheat and maize on expansive farms in temperate grasslands using heavy machinery like seed drillers, combine harvesters, and threshers.

Plantation farming

A form of commercial farming where vast areas of land are devoted to growing a single cash crop (such as tea, coffee, rubber, or oil palm) using large capital, scientific techniques, and skilled labour.

Mixed farming

An agricultural system involving the simultaneous cultivation of food crops, fodder crops, and the rearing of livestock on the same land to increase profitability.

Ranching

The practice of raising commercial livestock for meat or wool on privately owned land, often combined with the use of public grazing land.

Dairy farming

The rearing of cattle on a large scale using scientific methods to meet the commercial demand for milk and milk products.

Thresher

A farm machine designed specifically to separate harvested grain from straw.

Kharif crop

A summer and monsoon crop in India that is sown around April–May and harvested by October, with paddy (rice) serving as the main example.

Rabi crop

A winter crop in India that is sown between October and February and harvested by June, with wheat serving as the main example.

Agricultural development

Efforts taken to increase agricultural production to meet growing demand and enhance food security, including mechanisation, irrigation improvements, fertilisers, and high-yielding variety seeds.

Green Revolution

The period beginning in the 1960s that brought about a major increase in the production of food grains through the introduction of modern methods and inputs.

Sub-division of land

The division and fragmentation of agricultural landholdings into progressively smaller, scattered plots among heirs over successive generations.

Rural indebtedness

A critical problem in Indian agriculture where small and marginal farmers borrow money from local moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates, often leading to loss of land or bonded labour.

Coarse grains

A collective name for millets (such as jowar, bajra, and ragi) that possess high nutritional value and thrive in less fertile, sandy soils in regions of low rainfall.

Golden Fibre

A popular commercial term for jute, a tropical fibre crop grown in river deltas that requires high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and a humid climate.