[Best]NCERT Solutions For Class 10 Geography Social Science Chapter 4: Agriculture

NCERT Book Solutions for Class 10 Geography Contemporary India – II Chapter 4 Agriculture

NCERT solutions for class 10 geography social science chapter 4: Agriculture – provide detailed explanations and answers to the questions present in the NCERT textbook for class 10 geography.

These solutions cover all the topics and concepts present in the chapter, including types of agriculture, factors affecting agriculture, and the Green Revolution.

They are designed to help students understand the chapter better and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. The solutions are can be help to students and teachers alike.

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Textbook	NCERT
Class	Class 10
Subject	Geography
Chapter	Chapter 4
Chapter Name	Agriculture
Category	Class 10 Geography Notes
Medium	English

Types Of Agriculture

♦ Importance of Agriculture

• Employment: Two-thirds of its population is engaged in agricultural activities.
• Provide Food: Agriculture is a primary activity, which produces most of the food that we consume.
• Raw Materials: It also produces raw material for various industries.

♦ Primitive Subsistence Agriculture

• It is widely practised by many tribes.
• Method: Vegetation is usually cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil. It is a ‘slash and burn’ agriculture.

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• Cultivated areas are very small.
• Cultivation is done with very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes and family/community labour.
• This type of farmingdepends upon monsoon, natural fertility ofthe soil and suitability of other environmentalconditions to the crops grown.
• Cycle of Jhum:
• It refers to returning of tribal people to earlier patches for this agriculture.
• Farmers clear a patch of land and producecereals and other food crops to sustain theirfamily. When the soil fertility decreases, thefarmers shift and clear a fresh patch of landfor cultivation.
• After sometime (3 to 5 years) the soil loses its fertility and the farmer shifts to another parts and clears other patch of the forest for cultivation.  Farmer may return to the earlier patch after sometime.
• In present time this is not being followed by tribal people due to excessive loss of soil fertility.
• Nature to replenish the fertility of the soilthrough natural processes; land productivityin this type of agriculture is low as the farmerdoes not use fertilisers or other moderninputs.

► It is known by different names indifferent parts :

• Jhumming in north-eastern states likeAssam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland
• Pamlou in Manipur
• Dipa in Bastar districtof Chhattisgarhand in Andaman andNicobar Islands.
• Milpa in Mexico and Central America
• Conuco in Venzuela
• Roca in Brazil
• Masole in Central Africa
• Ladang in Indonesia
• Ray in Vietnam
• Bewar or Dahiya in Madhya Pradesh
• Podu’ or Penda in Andhra Pradesh
• PamaDabi or  Koman or Bringa in Odisha
• Kumari in Western Ghats
• Valre or Waltre in South-eastern Rajasthan
• Khil in the Himalayan belt
• Kuruwa in Jharkhand

Problems :

• Loss of soil fertility
• Deforestation
• Air pollution
• Low production
• Low quality production

♦ Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

• This type of farming is practised in areas ofhigh population pressure on land.
• It is labourintensive farming, where high doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation are used forobtaining higher production.
• ‘Right of Inheritance’

• Though the ‘right of inheritance’ leadingto the division of land among successivegenerations has rendered land-holding sizeuneconomical, the farmers continue to take maximum output from the limited land inthe absence of alternative source of livelihood.
• Thus, there is enormous pressure on agricultural land.

Commercial Farming
Main Characteristic

• Use of higher doses of modern inputs-
• High yielding variety (HYV) seeds
• Chemicalfertilisers, insecticides and pesticides
• To obtain higher productivity.

Degree of Commercialization:

• The degree ofcommercialization of agriculture varies fromone region to another.
• For example, rice is acommercial crop in Haryana and Punjab, butin Odisha, it is a subsistence crop.

Plantation Farming

Main Characteristic

• Type of commercial farming.
• A single crop is grown on a large area
• It over large tracts of land
• Use of capital intensive inputs
• Help of migrant labourers
• All the produce is used as raw material in respective industries
• Production is mainly for market
• In India, tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane,banana, etc., are important plantation crops.Tea in Assam and North Bengal coffee inKarnataka are some of the importantplantation crops grown in these states.
• A well-developed network of transport and communication connecting the plantation areas, processing industries and markets plays an important role in the development of plantations

Cropping Seasons

Kharif Season:

• Coincides with Southwest Monsoon (June-September)
• Tropical crops are cultivated.
• Crops- Rice, Cotton, Jute, Jowar, Bajra etc.
• Rice-growing regions: Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, particularly the (Konkan coast) along with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• Recently, paddy has also become an important crop of Punjab and Haryana.
• In states like Assam, West Bengal and Odisha, three crops of paddy are grown in a year. These are Aus, Aman and Boro.

Rabi Season

• Begins with the onset of winter (October-March). 
• Temperate and subtropical crops are cultivated.
• Crops- Wheat, Gram, Mustard etc.
• Wheat and other Rabi crops producing areas: States from the north and northwestern parts such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are important for the production of.
• Temperate Cyclones: Availability of precipitation during winter months due to the western temperate cyclones helps in the success of these crops.
• Role of Green Revolution: Green revolution in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan has also been an important factor.

Zaid Season

• In between the rabi and the kharif seasons,there is a short season during the summermonths known as the Zaid season
• Cropping season does not exist in southern parts of the country.
• Crops- Watermelons, Cucumbers, Vegetables, Fodder Crops.

• 1. Rice:
• • Staple Food: Staple food crop of a majority ofthe people in India.
• • Position in World: Our country is the secondlargest producer of rice in the world afterChina.
• • Cropping Season:It is a kharif crop
• • Climatic Season:

• Hightemperature, (above 25°C)
• High humiditywith annual rainfall above 100 cm
• In the areasof less rainfall, it grows with the help of irrigation

• Production Areas:

• Plains of north and north-eastern India
• Coastal areas and the deltaic regions
• Development of dense networkof canal irrigation and tube wells have madeit possible to grow rice in areas of less rainfall such as Punjab, Haryana and Western UttarPradesh and parts of Rajasthan.

2. Wheat
• Staple Food:

• Second most important cereal crop.
• It is the main food crop, in northand north-western part of the country.

• Position in World:
• Cropping Season:This rabi crop
• Climatic Season:

• Requires a cool growing season anda bright sunshine at the time of ripening.
• Requires 50 to 75 cm of annual rainfall evenly distributed over the growing season.

• Production Areas:

• Thereare two important wheat-growing zones in the country:

1. The Ganga-Satluj plains in the north-west
2. Black soil region of the Deccan

• Wheat-producing states arePunjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

3. Millets

• Millets :Jowar, bajra and ragi are theimportant millets grown in India.
• These are known as coarse grains, they havevery high nutritional value. For example, ragiis very rich in iron, calcium, other micro nutrients and roughage.

Jowar

• Jowar is the third most important food crop with respect to areaand production.
• It is a rain-fed crop mostlygrown in the moist areas which hardly needsirrigation.
• Major Jowar producing States areMaharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Bajra

• Bajra grows well on sandy soils and shallow black soil.
• Major Bajra producing states are Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana.

Ragi

• It is a crop of dry regions and grows well on red, black, sandy, loamy and shallow black soils.
• Major ragi producing states are: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh.

Maize

• Used both as food and fodder
• It is a kharif crop
• Temperature: Between 21°C to 27°C.
• Soils: It grows well in old alluvial soil.
• In somestates like Bihar maize is grown in rabi seasonalso.
• Use of modern inputs such as:
• HYV seeds
• Fertilisers and irrigation
• Major Producing States: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana.

1. Pluses

• Importance:

• These are a very important ingredient of vegetarian food as these are rich sources of proteins.
• These are legume crops which increase the natural fertility of soils through nitrogen fixationexcept arhar. Therefore, these are mostly grown in rotation with other crops.

• India is the largest producer as wellas the consumer of pulses in the world.
• Major pulses that are grown in India are tur (arhar), urad, moong, masur, peas and gram.
• Pulsesneed less moisture and survive even in dryconditions.

• Cultivation in dry lands of Deccan & Central plateaus and NW parts of the country.
• Pulses need less moisture and survive even in dry conditions.

• Major Producing States: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

2. Sugarcane:

• Climatic Condition:

• It is a tropical as well as asubtropical crop.
• It grows well in hot and humid climate
• Temperature: 21°C to 27°C
• Rainfall:75cm. and 100cm.
• Irrigation is required in the regions of low rainfall.

• Soils: It can be grown on avariety of soils.
• It needs manual labour fromsowing to harvesting.
• Position in world: India is the secondlargest producer of sugarcane only afterBrazil.
• Main source of sugar, gur(jaggary), khandsari and molasses.
• Producing States: Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Bihar, Punjaband Haryana.

3. Oilseeds

• In rapeseed production India was third largest producer in the world after Canada and China in 2016.
• Cropping Area: 12 per centof the total cropped area of the country.
• Main oil-seeds: Groundnut,mustard, coconut, sesamum (til), soyabean,castor seeds, cotton seeds, linseed andsunflower.
• Uses:

• Most of these are edible and usedas cooking mediums.
• Also used as raw material in theproduction of soap, cosmetics and ointments.

• Groundnut

• It is a kharif crop.
• In 2016 India was the second largest producer of groundnut in the world after China.
• It accounts for about half of the major oilseeds produced in the country.
• Gujarat was the largest producerof groundnut followed by Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in 2016–17.

• Linseed and mustard are Rabi crops.
• Sesamum is a kharif crop in northand Rabi crop in south India.
• Castor seed isgrown both as Rabi and kharif crop.

4. Tea:

• It is an example ofplantation agriculture.
• Important beverage crop introduced in India initially bythe British. Today, most of the tea plantationsare owned by Indians.
• Climate & Soil:

• It growswell in tropical and sub-tropical climates
• Deep and fertile soil which is well-drainedrich in humus and organic matter.
• Teabushes require warm and moist frost-freeclimate all through theyear.
• Frequent showersevenly distributed overthe year ensurecontinuous growth oftender leaves. ]
• Tea is alabour-intensive industry.

• Labour: It requires abundant, cheap and skilled labour.
• Producing States:

• Major states are Assam, hills of Darjeelingand Jalpaiguri districts, West Bengal, TamilNadu and Kerala.
• HimachalPradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, AndhraPradesh and Tripura are also tea-producingstates in the country.

• Position in World: In 2016 India was thesecond largest producer of tea after China.

1. Coffee:

• Good Quality: Indian coffee is known in the worldfor its good quality.
• Arabica Coffee:

• The Arabica varietyinitially brought from Yemen is produced inthe country.
• This variety is in great demandall over the world.
• Initially its cultivation wasintroduced on the Baba Budan Hills and eventoday its cultivation is confined to the Nilgiriin Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

2. Horticulture Crops:

• Position in World:

• In 2016, India was thesecond largest producer of fruits andvegetables in the world after China.
• India is aproducer of tropical as well as temperatefruits.

• Producer States:

• MangoesMaharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
• Oranges of Nagpur and Cherrapunjee (Meghalaya)
• Bananas of Kerala, Mizoram, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu
• Lichi and Guava of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
• Pineapples of Meghalaya
• Grapes of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra
• Apples, pears,apricots and walnuts of Jammu and Kashmirand Himachal Pradesh

• India is an important producer of pea,cauliflower, onion, cabbage, tomato, brinjaland potato.

3. Rubber:

• Climate:

• It is an equatorial crop, but underspecial conditions, it is also grown in tropicaland sub-tropical areas.
• Requires moist and humid climate
• Rainfall of more than 200 cm.
• Temperature above 25°C.

• Raw Material: Rubber is an important industrial rawmaterial.
• Production States: Kerala, TamilNadu, Karnataka and Andaman and NicobarIslands and Garo hills of Meghalaya.

4. Fibre Crops:

• Cotton, jute, hemp and naturalsilk are the four major fibre crops grown inIndia.
• Silk

• It is obtained fromcocoons of the silkworms fed on green leavesespeciallymulberry.
• Rearing of silk worms forthe production of silk fibre is known assericulture.

• Cotton

• Origin of Plant: India is believed to be the originalhome of the cotton plant.
• Raw Material: Cotton is one ofthe main raw materials for cotton textileindustry.
• Position in World: In 2016, India was second largestproducer of cotton after China.
• Soils: Cotton growswell in drier parts of the black cotton soil ofthe Deccan plateau.
• Climatic Condition:

1. It requires hightemperature, light rainfall or irrigation, 210frost-free days and bright sun-shine for itsgrowth.
2. It is a kharif crop and requires 6 to8 months to mature.

• Producing States: Maharashtra, Gujarat, MadhyaPradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana andUttar Pradesh.

• Jute

• It is known as the golden fibre.
• Climate & Soils:

1. Jutegrows well on well-drained fertile soils in theflood plains where soils are renewed everyyear.
2. High temperature is required during thetime of growth.

• Producing States: West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Meghalaya.
• Uses: It is used in making gunnybags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and otherartefacts.
• Competition: Due to its high cost, it is losingmarket to synthetic fibres and packingmaterials, particularly the nylon.

Need:

• Sustained uses of land without compatible techno-institutional changes have hindered the pace of agricultural development.
• Inspite of development of sources of irrigation most of the farmers in large parts of the country still depend upon monsoon and natural fertility in order to carry on their agriculture.
• For a growing population, this poses a serious challenge.
• Agriculture which provides livelihood for more than 60 per cent of its population, needs some serious technical and institutional reforms.

Measures / Policies

1. Land reform:

• It wasthe main focus of our First Five Year Plan.
• Theright of inheritance had already lead tofragmentation of land holdings necessitatingconsolidation of holdings.
• The laws of land reforms were enacted butthe laws of implementation was lacking orlukewarm.

2. Green Revolution&White Revolution (Operation Flood)

• The Green Revolutionbased on the use of package technology andthe White Revolution (Operation Flood) weresome of the strategies initiated to improvethe lot of Indian agriculture.
• Regional Imbalance: These too ledto the concentration of development in fewselected areas.

3. Comprehensive Land Development Programme

• In the 1980s and1990s, a comprehensive land developmentprogramme was initiated,
• It included bothinstitutional and technical reforms.
• Important Reforms:

1. Provisionfor crop insurance against drought, flood,cyclone, fire and disease,
2. Establishment ofGrameen banks, cooperative societies andbanks for providing loan facilities to thefarmers at lower rates of interest.

4. Other Measures :

• Kissan Credit Card (KCC)
• Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS)
• Some other schemes introduced by the Government of India for the benefit of the farmers.
• Special weather bulletins and agricultural programmes for farmers were introduced on the radio and television.
• The government also announces minimum support price, remunerative and procurement prices for important crops to check the exploitation of farmers by speculators and middlemen.

Contribution Of Agriculture

1. Declining Trends

• Agriculture has been the backbone of the Indian economy though its share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has registered a declining trend from 1951 onwards.
• The declining share of agriculture in the GDP is a matter of serious concern because any decline and stagnation in agriculture will lead to a decline in other spheres of the economy having wider implications for society.
• In 2010-11 about 52 per cent of the total work force was employed by the farm sector which makes more than half of the Indian Population dependent on agriculture for sustenance.

2. Steps to Improve Agricultural Contribution:

• Establishment of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
• Establishment of Agricultural universities, veterinary services and animal breeding centres, horticulture development, research
• Development in the field of meteorology and weather forecast, etc. were given priority for improving Indian agriculture.
• Improving the rural infrastructure was also considered essential for the same.

3. Impacts / Present Scenario:

• Thoughthe GDP growth rate is increasing over theyears, it is not generating sufficientemployment opportunities in the country.
• Thegrowth rate in agriculture is deceleratingwhich is an alarming situation.

4. Challenges of Agricultural Sector:

  Today, Indianfarmers are facing a big challenge frominternational competition and our governmentis going ahead with :

• Reduction in the publicinvestment in agriculture sector particularlyin irrigation, power, rural roads, market andmechanisation.
• Subsidy on fertilisers isdecreased leading to increase in the cost ofproduction.
• Reduction in importduties on agricultural products have proveddetrimental to agriculture in the country.
• Farmers are withdrawing their investmentfrom agriculture causing a downfall in theemployment in agriculture.

Bhoodan – Gramdan

Vinoba Bhave

1. Mahatma Gandhi declared Vinoba Bhave ashis spiritual heir.
2. He also participated inSatyagraha as one of the foremostsatyagrahis.
3. He was one of the votaries ofGandhi’s concept of gram swarajya.

Case of Pochampalli

1. After Gandhiji’s martyrdom, Vinoba Bhaveundertook padyatra to spread Gandhiji’smessage covered almost the entire country.
2. Once, when he was delivering a lecture atPochampalli in Andhra Pradesh, some poorlandless villagers demanded some land for their economic well-being. Vinoba Bhave could not promise it to them immediately but assured them to talk to the Government of India regarding provision of land for them if they undertook cooperative farming.
3. Suddenly, Shri Ram Chandra Reddy stoodup and offered 80 acres of land to bedistributed among 80 land-less villagers.This act was known as ‘Bhoodan’.

Blood-less Revolution.

1. Later hetravelled and introduced his ideas widely allover India.
2. Some zamindars, owners ofmany villages offered to distribute somevillages among the landless. It was knownas Gramdan.
3. However, many land-ownerschose to provide some part of their land tothe poor farmers due to the fear of landceiling act.
4. This Bhoodan-Gramdanmovement initiated by Vinoba Bhave is alsoknown as the Blood-less Revolution.

Impact Of Globalisation On Agriculture

• Globalisation is not a new phenomenon. It was there at the time of colonization.
• In the nineteenth century when European traders came to India, at that time too, Indian spices were exported to different countries of the world and farmers of south India were encouraged to grow these crops. Till today it is one of the important items of export from India.
• During the British period cotton belts of India attracted the British and ultimately cotton was exported to Britain as a raw material for their textile industries. Cotton textile industry in Manchester and Liverpool flourished due to the availability of good quality cotton from India.
• Champaran Movement

1. It was started in 1917 in Bihar.
2. This was started because farmers of that region were forced to grow indigo on their land because it was necessary for the textile industries which were located in Britain.
3. They were unable to grow food grains to sustain their families.

Impacts of Globalisation

1. Under globalisation, particularly after 1990, the farmers in India have been exposed to new challenges.
2. Despite being an important producer of rice, cotton, rubber, tea, coffee, jute and spices our agricultural products are not able to compete with the developed countries because of the highly subsidized agriculture in those countries.

Way Ahead

• The keyword today is “gene revolution”.which includes genetic engineering.
• Genetic engineering is recognised as apowerful supplement in inventing newhybrid varieties of seeds.
• To make agriculture successful and profitable, proper thrust should be given to the improvement of the condition of marginal and small farmers.
• In fact organic farming is much in vogue today because it is practised without factory made chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides. Hence, it does not affect environment in a negative manner.
• A few economists think that Indian farmershave a bleak future if they continue growingfoodgrains on the holdings that grow smallerand smaller as the population rises.
• Indian farmers should diversify theircropping pattern from cereals to high-valuecrops. This will increase incomes and reduceenvironmental degradation simultaneously.Because fruits, medicinal herbs, flowers,vegetables, bio-diesel crops like jatrophaand jojoba need much less irrigation thanrice or sugarcane. India’s diverse climatecan be harnessed to grow a wide range ofhigh-value crops.

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