GA Study Notes On Agriculture In India : SSC CGL Tier-1 2017

Agriculture In India

In India, around 70% of the population earns its livelihood from agriculture. It is an important source of raw material for many agro-based industries. Farming is practised in various ways across the world.

Depending upon the geographical conditions, demand for products, labour and level of technology, farming can be classified into:

Subsistence Farming

This farming is practised to meet the needs of the farmer’s family.
Cultivation techniques are primitive and simple.
Farmers mostly cultivate cereals along with oil seeds, pulses, vegetables and sugarcane.

Commercial Farming

This farming is just the opposite to subsistence farming.most of the produce is sold in the market for earning money.
In this system, farmers use inputs like irrigation, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and High Yielding Varieties of seeds etc.
Some of the major commercial crops grown in different parts of India are cotton, jute, sugarcane, groundnut etc.

Intensive and Extensive Farming

They differ on the amount of production per unit of land.
When we use a large patch of land for cultivation then we call it extensive farming.
India does not practise extensive cultivation.
The best example of intensive cultivation is in Japan where availability of land for cultivation is very limited. In India, it is practised in Kerala.

Plantation Farming

In this type of agriculture, a single cash crop is grown for sale.
eg: Tea, coffee, rubber, banana, and spices.

Mixed Farming

It is a situation in which both raising crops and rearing animals are carried on simultaneously.
Banana is a plantation type of farming. It can also be classified as commercial farming.

India has three cropping seasons - Rabi, kharif, and zaid.

Rabi - Rabi crops are sown in winter from October to December and harvested in summer from April to June. Ex: wheat, barley, peas, gram, and mustard.
Kharif - Kharif crops are grown with the onset of monsoon(July) in different parts of the country and these are harvested in September-October. Ex: paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur(arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut, and soyabean.
Zaid - There is a short season during the summer months known as the Zaid season.This crop is grown in some parts of the country during March to June. Ex: watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops.