Agriculture

Every card in this deck

QPrimitive subsistence farming

A'Slash and burn' farming on small patches using primitive tools such as the hoe, dao and digging stick, with family or community labour. Farmers clear a patch, grow food for the family, then move on when the soil loses fertility. It depends on the monsoon and natural soil fertility, so productivity is low.

QRegional names for slash-and-burn farming in India

AJhumming in the north-east (Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland), Pamlou in Manipur, Dipa in Bastar (Chhattisgarh), Bewar or Dahiya in Madhya Pradesh, Podu or Penda in Andhra Pradesh, Kumari in the Western Ghats and Khil in the Himalayan belt.

QIntensive subsistence farming

ALabour-intensive farming in areas of high population pressure on land. It uses high doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation to get the most output from small holdings, which inheritance has divided into uneconomic sizes.

QCommercial farming

AFarming that uses high doses of modern inputs, such as HYV seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides, to get high productivity for the market. How commercial a crop is varies by region: rice is commercial in Punjab and Haryana but a subsistence crop in Odisha.

QPlantation agriculture

ACommercial farming in which a single crop is grown over a large area with capital-intensive inputs and migrant labour, and all the produce goes to industry as raw material. Tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane and banana are examples. It depends on good transport links to processing units and markets.

QRabi cropping season

ACrops sown in winter (October-December) and harvested in summer (April-June), such as wheat, barley, peas, gram and mustard. They are grown mainly in the north and north-west, helped by winter rain from western temperate cyclones and by the Green Revolution.

QKharif cropping season

ACrops sown with the onset of the monsoon and harvested in September-October, such as paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur, moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut and soyabean.

QZaid cropping season

AA short summer season between the rabi and kharif seasons, producing crops such as watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops.

QAus, Aman and Boro

AThe three paddy crops grown in a single year in states such as Assam, West Bengal and Odisha.

QWhat geographical conditions does rice need, and how is it grown in drier states?

AA kharif crop needing temperatures above 25°C, high humidity and over 100 cm of annual rainfall. It grows in the northern and north-eastern plains, coastal areas and deltas. Dense canal and tube-well irrigation lets drier Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan grow it.

QWhat geographical conditions does wheat need, and where are its main growing zones?

AA rabi crop needing a cool growing season, bright sunshine at ripening and 50-75 cm of rainfall spread evenly over the season. Its two main zones are the Ganga-Satluj plains in the north-west and the black soil region of the Deccan.

QWhy are millets important even though they are called coarse grains?

AJowar, bajra and ragi have very high nutritional value; ragi, for example, is rich in iron, calcium, micronutrients and roughage. They grow in dry conditions and poorer soils: jowar is rain-fed, bajra suits sandy and shallow black soils, and ragi grows in dry regions.

QWhat conditions does maize need, and what has raised its production?

AA food and fodder crop grown mainly in kharif, needing 21-27°C and doing well in old alluvial soil; in states like Bihar it is also a rabi crop. HYV seeds, fertilisers and irrigation have increased its output.

QWhy are pulses usually grown in rotation with other crops?

ABeing leguminous, all pulses except arhar fix nitrogen from the air and restore soil fertility. They also need little moisture and survive in dry conditions. India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses, the main protein source in vegetarian diets.

QWhat conditions does sugarcane need to grow?

AA tropical and subtropical crop that needs a hot, humid climate at 21-27°C and 75-100 cm of annual rainfall, with irrigation where rain is low. It grows on many soils and needs manual labour from sowing to harvest. India is second only to Brazil in production.

QWhich oilseeds are kharif crops and which are rabi crops?

AGroundnut is kharif and makes up about half of India's major oilseeds. Linseed and mustard are rabi. Sesamum is kharif in the north but rabi in the south, and castor is grown in both seasons.

QWhat geographical conditions and inputs does tea cultivation need?

ATropical or subtropical climate, deep fertile well-drained soil rich in humus, and a warm, moist, frost-free climate all year with frequent, evenly spread showers for continuous leaf growth. It also needs abundant cheap skilled labour, and leaves are processed within the garden to keep them fresh.

QWhich variety of coffee does India grow, and where?

AThe high-quality Arabica variety, first brought from Yemen and in great demand worldwide. It was first introduced on the Baba Budan Hills, and its cultivation is still confined to the Nilgiris in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

QWhat climate does rubber need, and where is it grown in India?

AAn equatorial crop needing a moist, humid climate with over 200 cm of rainfall and temperatures above 25°C; under special conditions it also grows in tropical and subtropical areas. It is grown mainly in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Garo hills of Meghalaya.

QSericulture

AThe rearing of silkworms, fed on green leaves, especially mulberry, to produce silk fibre. Silk is the only one of India's four major fibre crops (cotton, jute, hemp, silk) that does not come directly from a crop grown in soil.

QWhat conditions does cotton need to grow?

ACotton does best on the black cotton soil of the Deccan plateau's drier parts. It needs high temperatures, little rain or else irrigation, bright sunshine and about 210 days without frost. It is sown in the kharif season and takes 6-8 months to mature.

QWhat conditions does jute need, and why is it called the golden fibre?

AJute grows on well-drained fertile floodplain soils renewed every year, and needs high temperature while growing. West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Meghalaya are the main producers. Its value in gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn and carpets earned it the name 'golden fibre'.

QWhat institutional reforms did the government introduce in agriculture after Independence?

ALand reform was the focus of the First Five Year Plan. Priorities were collectivisation, consolidation of holdings fragmented by inheritance, cooperation and abolition of zamindari. Later came crop insurance, Grameen banks, cooperative societies and banks giving farmers cheaper loans.

QWhat measures has the government taken to protect farmers and raise production?

AThe Green Revolution and White Revolution (Operation Flood), the Kisan Credit Card and the Personal Accident Insurance Scheme, and weather bulletins and farm programmes on radio and TV. Minimum support, remunerative and procurement prices protect farmers from speculators and middlemen.

QBhoodan-Gramdan movement

AVinoba Bhave's 'Bloodless Revolution'. Bhoodan began at Pochampally in Telangana, when Ram Chandra Reddy gave 80 acres to 80 landless villagers. In Gramdan, zamindars gave whole villages to the landless. Some landowners gave land out of fear of the land ceiling act.