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several government agencies like banks, Primitive Subsistence Agriculture : It is practised
cooperatives, individuals and private agencies. on small patches of land with the help of primitive
Market : This refers to customers, who buy tools like hoe and digging sticks. This includes
agricultural produce. Farmers sell their produce to shifting agriculture and nomadic herding.
market. It is important to have a market close to Shifting Agriculture : This is a farming system in
the areas. which a plot of land is cleared and cultivated for
Apart from these, rules of law, a stable some time till the soil nutrients run out, after
government, peace and harmony, transport and which the farmer moves on to a new plot of land.
storage facilities also help to increase crop yields. The abandoned land lies fallow for 15 to 30 years
or more. Only large trees
Types of Agriculture
and stumps are left behind.
Farming is a complex phenomenon. It varies from Ideally, this type of farming
one place to another. The nature and is carried in low populated
characteristics of farming are affected and areas, where enough land
dependent on geographical conditions, level of is available to be cultivated
technology and socio-economic and cultural and then abandoned in this
factors. On the basis of produce, labour and level manner. Shifting cultivation
of technology, farming can be classified into two
Another form of shifting agriculture is slash and
broad types—subsistence farming and commercial burn method. Here farmers or cultivators fell or
farming .
burn trees to make the land free for cultivation.
Subsistence Farming The ashes of these trees mixed with soil acts as a
fertilizer. Then farmers and their families do
This is a system of farming where the farmer
grows crops and keeps livestock for the needs of agriculture with primitive tools such as hoe, yoke
his family only. There is no surplus for sale. The and digging sticks. They grow mainly fern, potato,
casava etc. After three or four years that piece of
people concerned with such kind of farming have
low technological level, they are uneducated and land loses its fertility and farmers leave this land
have small money to invest in farming. and move in search of another piece of land. This
farming is known by different names
Subsistence farming still exists in parts of Asia,
Africa and Latin America. Subsistence agriculture worldwide—Jhum in North-East India, Swidden in
can be further classified as intensive subsistence Africa, Caingin in the Philippines and Milpa in
Central America.
agriculture and primitive subsistence agriculture .
Nomadic Herding : This is generally practised in
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture : This type of
agriculture is carried out in the densely populated arid and semi arid lands where cultivation is not
possible. Herders domesticate animals and graze
areas of the monsoon regions of South, South-east
and East Asia. In such areas, people do agriculture them in order to meet the basic needs such as
on small pieces of land due to limited land milk, meat, wool and skin. Sheep, yak, camel and
goat are most commonly reared. Herdsmen along
available for agriculture. Sometimes, rich farmers
use modern techniques to do agriculture. Often with their animals keep on moving from one place
double cropping is carried out—rice in summer to another in search of water and food along
defined routes. They do not lead a settled life.
and millet in winter to obtain the maximum yield
from the land. Rice, grown widely in East Asia, is Sometimes, mixed herds of cattle, camels, sheep,
an example of intensive agriculture with high goats and horses are raised as in parts of Central
Asia, while in other areas, a single animal species
inputs per unit area resulting in high outputs.
Other crops including wheat, pulses and oilseeds is reared such as the camel in Arabia. The Kirghiz
are also grown here. tribe of Central Asia still migrate with their herds
of goats and the Masai in East Africa still rear just
Agriculture
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