Agriculture is an important primary activity in India, producing most of the country's food and raw materials. There are several types of farming practiced across different regions based on environmental and socio-cultural factors, ranging from primitive subsistence to intensive commercial plantation farming. Major crops include rice, wheat, millets, pulses, sugarcane, oilseeds, tea, coffee, rubber, cotton and jute. Technological and institutional reforms since independence, including the Green Revolution, have increased agricultural productivity and output. However, agriculture continues to be a major contributor to India's economy and employment. Ensuring national food security remains an ongoing priority amid challenges of population pressure, market uncertainties, and impacts of globalization.

1. Agriculture
Social Science (Geography),
Chapter 4,
Class 10

2. Subtopics
• Introduction
• Types of Farming
• Cropping Pattern
• Major Crops
• Technological and Institutional Reforms
• Contribution of agriculture to the national economy, employment and
output
• Food Security
• Impact of Globalization on Agriculture

3. Introduction
• Agriculture is a primary activity which produces most of the food that
we consume besides food grain it also produces raw material for
various industries.
• Some agriculture product like tea, coffee, spice, etc.

4. Types of Farming
• Cultivation method has changed
significantly depending upon the
characteristics of physical
environmental, technological
know – how and socio – culture
practices.
• Farming various from
subsistence to commercial type.
At present in different parts of
India.
Types of
farming
Intensive
Farming
Commercial
Farming Plantation
Subsistence
Farming

5. Primitive Subsistence Farming
• This type of farming is still practiced in
few pockets of India
• The help of primitive tools like hoe
dao and digging sticks, and family
/community labour.
• This type of farming depends upon
monsoon, natural fertility of the soil
and suitability of other environmental
conditions to the crops grown.
• It is ‘salsh and burn’ agriculture.
• The soil fertility decreases.
• The farmers shift and clear a fresh
patch of land for cultivation.

6. Intensive Subsistence Farming
• This type of farming is practiced
is areas of high population
pressure on land and it is labour
intensive farming.
• The biological inputs and
irrigation are used for obtaining
higher production.
• There is enormous pressure on
agriculture land.

7. Commercial Farming
• This type of farming is the use of
higher doses of modern inputs.
• The degree of commercialization
of agriculture various from one
region to another.
• A single crop s grown on a large
area.
• The help of migrant labourers.
• The produces is used as raw
material in respective industries.

8. Plantation
• Plantation is also a type of commercial
farming. In this type of farming, a
single crop is grown on a large area.
• The plantation has an interface of
agriculture and industry.
• Plantations cover large tracts of land,
using capital intensive inputs, with the
help of migrant labourers.
• All the produce is used as raw material
in respective industries. In India, tea,
coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana, etc
are important plantation crops.

9. Cropping Pattern
• These are also reflected in agricultural practices and cropping pattern
in the country.
• India has three cropping seasons – rabi, kharif and zaid.
• Rajasthan has also been an important factor in the growth of the
above-mentioned rabi crops.
• The crops produced during ‘zaid’ are watermelon, muskmelon,
cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops.

10. Major Crops: Rice
• Staple food crop.
• Our country is the second largest
producer of rice in the world
after China.
• It is a kharif crop which requires
high temperature, (above 25°C)
and high humidity with annual
rainfall above 100 cm.
• It is grown in the plains of north
and north-eastern India, coastal
areas and the deltaic regions.

11. Wheat
• The second most important cereal
crop.
• It is the main food crop, in north
and north-western part of the
country.
• This rabi crop requires a cool
growing season with 50 to 75 cm of
annual rainfall and a bright
sunshine at the time of ripening.
• Wheat growing regions are the
Ganga-Satluj plains in the north-
west and black soil region of the
Deccan.

12. Millets
• Jowar, Bajra and Ragi are the
important millets grown in India.
• These have very high nutritional
value.

13. Pulses
• India is the largest producer as
well as the consumer of pulses
in the world.
• Major source of protein in a
vegetarian diet. These need less
moisture and survive even in dry
conditions.
• Major producing states in India
are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra
and Karnataka

14. Sugarcane
• It is a tropical as well as a
subtropical crop.
• It grows well in hot and humid
climate with a temperature of 21°C
to 27°C and an annual rainfall
between 75 cm and 100 cm.
• Major producing states are Uttar
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Punjab and Haryana.

15. Oil Seeds
• The oil seeds covers
approximately 12 percent of the
total cropped area of the
country.
• These are used as cooking
mediums as well as used as raw
material in the production of
soap, cosmetics and ointments.

16. Tea
• Tea cultivation is an example of
plantation agriculture.
• It is an important beverage crop
introduced in India initially by the
British.
• It requires warm and moist frost-
free climate with frequent showers
all through the year.
• Major producing states are Assam,
hills of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri
districts, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu
and Kerala.

17. Coffee
• Indian coffee is known in the
world for its good quality.
• Its cultivation is confined to the
Nilgiri in Karnataka, Kerala and
Tamil Nadu.

18. Rubber
• It is an equatorial crop, but under
special conditions, it is also grown
in tropical and sub-tropical areas.
• It requires moist and humid
climate with rainfall of more than
200 cm. and temperature above
25°C.
• It is mainly grown in Kerala, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and Andaman and
Nicobar islands and Garo hills of
Meghalaya.

19. Cotton and Jute
• Cotton is a kharif crop grows well in drier parts of the black cotton soil
of the Deccan plateau. It requires high temperature, light rainfall or
irrigation, 210 frost-free days and bright sun-shine for its growth.
Major producing states are – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh.
• Jute grows well on well-drained fertile soils in the flood plains where
soils are renewed every year. Major jute-producing states West
Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Meghalaya. It is used in making
gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and other artefacts.

20. Technological and Institutional Reforms
• The pace of agricultural development. Agriculture which provides a livelihood for more than 60 per cent.
• The government of India embarked upon introducing agricultural in the 1960s and 1970s. The government also
announces minimum support prices remunerative and procurement prices for important crops.
• Consolidation of holdings, cooperation and abolition of zamindari, etc. were given priority to bring about
institutional reforms in the country after independence.
• The green revolution based on the use of package technology and the white revolution (operation flood) were
some of the strategies initiated to improve a lot of Indian agriculture.
• Land reform was the main focus of our first five-year plan.
• Development in few selected areas. In the 1980s and 1990s, a comprehensive land development programme
was initiated, which includes both institutional and technological reforms.
• Provision for crop insurance against drought, flood, cyclone, fire and disease.
• Establishment of Grameen Banks, cooperative societies and banks for providing loan facilities to the farmers at
lower rates of interest. Kissan credit cards and personal accident insurance schemes introduced.
• Special weather bulletins and agricultural programmes for farmers were introduced on radio and T.V. The
government also announces minimum support price.
• Remunerative and procurement prices for important crops to check the exploitation of farmers by speculators
and middleman.

21. Contribution of agriculture to the national
economy, employment and output
• Gross Domestic Product has registered a declining trend from 1951 onwards. The
population continues to be as high as 63 per cent in 2001.
• The government of India made concerted efforts to modernize agriculture in
India.
• India made concerted efforts to modernize agriculture Establishment of Indian
Council of Agriculture. The growth rate in agriculture is decelerating which is an
alarming situation. Agriculture backbone of Indian Economy. Share in the gross
domestic product. Providing employment. Livelihood to the population.
• The government of India made concerted efforts to modernize agriculture.
Establishment of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, agricultural universities.
Veterinary services and animal breeding centers. Horticulture development
Research and development in the field of meteorology and weather forecast.

22. Food Security
• The number of people who do not have food security is disproportionately
large in some region of our country particularly in economically less
developed states with the higher incidence of poverty.
• The focus of the policy is on fixing the support price for procurement of
wheat and rice to maintain their stocks. Food Corporation of India.
• The FCI procures food grains from the farmers at the government
announced minimum support price.
• The competition for land between non – agriculture uses such as housing
etc., The farmers are badly affected by the uncertainties of production and
market.
• The higher the supply the lower is the demand.

23. Impact of Globalization on Agriculture
• Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It was there at the time of
colonization.
• Till today it is one of the important items of export from India.
• Cotton textile industry in Manchester and Liverpool flourished due to
the availability of good quality cotton from India.
• The Champaran movement which started in 1917 in Bihar.
• Under globalization, particularly after 1990, the farmer in India have
been exposed to new challenges.

24. Thank You