Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:. Until a few thousand years ago Man was merely a hunter on the Earth. Not
until the Neolithic period (about 7000 years ago) did he begin to settle down to
agriculture. By tending the soil he was able to increase his food supply without
roaming over large areas in search of it. And he has continued to improve his
practice of agriculture; until today he is able to produce greater and better
yields from the soil than it ever gave before. But as far as the seas are
concerned, he is still almost entirely a hunter. He catches fish and other aquatic
animals but does little to encourage their growth and continued supply. So far,
his under – water hunting has yielded him considerable supplies of highly
nutritious protein to supplement the supply he gets from his farming of the
land. But with the growing increase in world population Man may soon need so
much protein from the sea that its supplies, enormous but not inexhaustible,
will be in danger of running out – unless Man takes steps to maintain adequate
supplies through some form of sea – farming.
Fish – farming on a small scale has already been successfully carried out in
fish – ponds, and in lakes, especially the artificial lakes created by the
construction of dams for hydro – electric projects. Already the protein supply
has been increased by the yield from fresh – water fishponds, some of them
developed in rural communities with the help and supervision of Agricultural
Officers.
Once fish – ponds have been stocked with young fish, it is fairly simple to
give the fish healthy surroundings to grow in, and see that they have an
adequate supply of food. The basis of all water feeding is plankton, thename foe
very minute plants and animals which float in great numbers on the water. The
small fishes feed on this, and in their turn serve as food for the bigger fishes.
Since plankton itself depends for ite growth on the presence of certain minerals
in the water, the amount of plankton can be increased by the addition of
fertilizers to the water, just as we fertilize the soil for growing plants.
However, several problems will have to be solved before the farming of
the oceans can be both practicable and profitable. For instance, there would be
no point in fertilizing a portion of the sea if the sea currents are going to scatter
the fertilizer away over miles and miles of unproductive water. Even if the fish –
farmer could restrict the fertilizer to a definite area he would still have to find a
way of keeping within his ‘own’ area the fish which his fertilizers had fed to
maturity. And to get the maximum returns for his expenditure he would have to
find a way of keeping the food to the fish he wants to feed. This would involve
some sort of ‘weeding’ – removing the numerous inedible water creatures which would be sharing the sea – food with ‘his’ fish.
(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. One
word answers or short phrases will be accepted. (3)
(i) Tending
(ii) Considerable
(iii) Minute
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
(i) As per the passage, what advantage does agriculture have over
hunting? Give a reason to support that sea – farming probably will
become necessary after some time.
(2)
(ii) What exactly is the purpose of fertilizing a fish – pond? (2)
(iii) In which part of the ocean will farming probably begin? (1)
(iv) What kind of machinery may be used for the purpose? (2)
(v) What reason does the writer give to indicate that the problem of sea
farming will be solved in future? (2)
(c) In not more than 50 words, enumerate the main problems to be faced in sea
– farming and state how they could be solved.
Answers
Answer:
The world before agriculture
Based on current archeological evidence, anatomically modern humans have existed roughly 200,000-300,000 years. However, before roughly 15,000-20,000 years ago, we have no evidence that our ancestors had agriculture. Instead, we believe they strictly hunted or foraged for food. There were times when they had a big kill and had more food than they knew what to do with. There were other times when they overforaged or hunted and they didn’t know how many days it would be until their next meal. If they didn’t find food, they or their families would starve. Even when there was food, it might take miles of walking to find it. For many of these preagricultural societies, a good bit of their energy went into just getting more energy—in other words, food—to keep going and reproduce.
There also couldn’t be too many humans living in one area since there was only so much food to be found or killed. Because of this, a tribe of 100 hunter-foragers would have needed to be the only humans on 50 to 500 square kilometers to survive—places lush with life, like tropical rain forests, could support a higher density. With only hunting and foraging to support human populations, it is estimated that the Earth could only support about 10 million people. Historians estimate the world population was around six to ten million 10,000 years ago.
The birth of agriculture
About 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, humans began to mold nature to their needs and agriculture emerged in multiple places around the planet. We believe that it emerged independently and spread from places as varied as Mesopotamia, China, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. As we explore more, it is likely that scientists will find more places where agriculture may have emerged even earlier. The birth of agriculture is often referred to as the Neolithic Revolution since it seems to coincide with the Neolithic period—or new stone age. The Neolithic period’s name stems from the fact that stone artifacts were more smooth and refined than those of the Paleolithic period, or old stone age. Many of these tools facilitated early agriculture.^1
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