Class 10 Geography: Agriculture

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering types of farming, cropping patterns, major food and non-food crops, technological and institutional reforms, and the Bhoodan-Gramdan movement from Class 10 Geography.

Primitive Subsistence Farming

A traditional farming practice carried out on small patches of land using primitive tools like hoe, dao, and digging sticks, relying entirely on monsoon rainfall and natural soil fertility.

Slash and Burn Agriculture

A type of primitive farming where farmers clear a patch of forest land by slashing trees, burning them, using the ashes as natural fertilizer, and shifting to another patch once the soil loses fertility.

Jhumming

The regional name for slash and burn agriculture in the North-Eastern states of India.

Intensive Subsistence Farming

A farming practice carried out in areas of high population pressure and small land holdings, characterized by labor-intensive methods and high doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation to maximize yield.

Right of Inheritance

The generational division of agricultural land among heirs, which progressively reduces the size of land holdings and creates immense pressure on cultivable land.

Commercial Farming

A farming system where modern inputs such as High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides are applied in high doses with the primary objective of earning profit.

Plantation Farming

A form of commercial farming that functions as an interface between agriculture and industry, where a single crop is cultivated over a large tract of land with capital-intensive inputs.

Kharif Cropping Season

The agricultural season sown with the onset of the monsoon in June–July and harvested in September–October, producing water-intensive crops such as paddy, maize, cotton, and groundnut.

Rabi Cropping Season

The winter cropping season sown between October and November and harvested in the summer from March to April, comprising crops such as wheat, barley, peas, gram, and mustard.

Zaid Season

A short cropping season falling in the summer months between March and June, between Rabi and Kharif, during which crops like watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables, and fodder crops are grown.

Boro Paddy

A variety of paddy crop grown specifically during the Rabi season in certain regions like the coastal tracks of Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Maize

A Kharif crop that requires a temperature range of $21^\text{o}\text{C}$ to $27^\text{o}\text{C}$ and is uniquely utilized both as food for humans and as fodder for livestock.

Leguminous Crops

Crops, such as most pulses (excluding arhar), that contain root nodules capable of fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere to restore natural soil fertility.

Millets

Coarse grains, including jowar, bajra, and ragi, that are characterized by extremely high nutritional value.

Jowar

The third most important cereal crop in India with respect to area and production, primarily a rain-fed crop with Maharashtra being its largest producer.

Bajra

A coarse cereal crop that grows well on sandy soils and shallow black soil, with Rajasthan being the leading producer.

Ragi

A crop of dry regions rich in nutrients that grows well on red, black, sandy, and loamy soils, with Karnataka as the largest producer.

Arabica

A high-quality variety of coffee brought to India from Yemen and grown in the Baba Budan Hills of Karnataka, known and exported worldwide.

Horticulture

The branch of agriculture that involves the intensive commercial cultivation of fruits and vegetables.

Sericulture

The rearing of silkworms fed on mulberry leaves to harvest their cocoons for raw silk fiber production.

Golden Fiber

A popular name given to jute on account of its natural golden color.

Kisan Credit Card (KCC)

An institutional credit mechanism launched to grant farmers easy access to credit and agricultural loans at low rates of interest.

Bhoodan

The voluntary donation of agricultural land to landless villagers, initiated when Shri Ram Chandra Reddy offered $80$ acres of his land to $80$ landless farmers in Pochampalli, Andhra Pradesh.

Gramdan

The voluntary surrender of ownership of entire villages by large landholders to be redistributed among the landless population.

Bloodless Revolution

The title attributed to the voluntary Bhoodan-Gramdan movement led by Vinoba Bhave that accomplished land redistribution without violent conflict.