Answer the following questions.
(i) What is agriculture?
(ii) Name the factors influencing agriculture?
(iii) What is shifting cultivation? What are its disadvantages?
(iv) What is plantation agriculture?
(v) Name the fibre crops and name the climatic conditions required for their
growth.
Answers
Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock.[1] Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first.
(i) Agriculture is the primary activity of the economy. It includes different crops like cereals, fruits, vegetables and flowers. This also includes rearing of livestock and other related activities.
(ii) Factors Influencing Agriculture are:
1. Favourable land and climate have affected Agriculture significantly since ages.
2. Plain regions of river valleys have supported agriculture ,that is why our initial civilizations flourished in river
valleys.
3. Land is the basic requirement along with soil, water, sunlight, slope and favourable climate which are major
physical factors that affect Agriculture.
(iii) Shifting Cultivation is a very primitive method practised in the remote. The plots of land are cleared by felling
the trees and then burning them. That is why, Shifting agriculture is also known as Slash and Burn Agriculture.
(iv) Plantation Agriculture takes place on large farms or estates. Plantation need amount of capital for preparing
land , planting crop,etc.
(v) Fibre crop like Cotton grows in Temperature about 25°C and plenty of sunshine is required during the growing period. It is grown in Tropical and sub- tropical climates. It needs rainfall of about 60-100 cm. It has three varieties:
1. Long staple Cotton
It has a fibre length of 35mm and grows best in semi- arid areas. Egypt is the World's major producer followed
by Sudan, Peru and USA.
2. Medium staple Cotton
It accounts for the bulk of world cotton output. It has a fibre length of 22-32mm. The two largest producers are
USA and Russia.
3. Short staple Cotton
It is the shortest and coarsest of the Cotton with a fibre length of less than 22mm. It is mostly grown os Asia
Example: India
Second fibre crop is Jute
Jute is the second most plant fibre. It is known as the Golden Fibre. It is used in making gunny bags, carpets,
mats, ropes, etc. It grows well in hot, tropical climate, with plenty of moisture. Well drained alluvial soil in flood
plains is ideal. Temperature of about 20-40°C and relative humidity of 70-80°C are favourable for successful
Cultivation.