This document defines and describes various types of agriculture. It begins by explaining how nomadic humans settled and began growing crops, establishing the origins of agriculture. Key types of agriculture discussed include subsistence farming, where farmers focus on growing enough food for their families; intensive cultivation, using high amounts of labor, capital and technology; and extensive cultivation, utilizing large areas of land with low labor and capital inputs. The document also outlines plantation farming, organic farming, mixed farming, truck farming, dairy farming, and cooperative farming. Each type is concisely defined.

2.  The story of how agriculture was born
Till about 10,000 B.C., people were nomadic (The people who have no permanent
homes and continuously move from one place to another are called nomads).
They were continuously moving in groups from place to place in search of food
and shelter. These nomadic people ate raw fruits and vegetables found in nature
and started hunting animals for food. Later, they settled near water bodies such
as lakes, rivers, ponds, etc. to grow wheat, paddy and other food crops. This is how
agriculture was born.
 Agriculture
The growing of plants (or crops) in fields for obtaining food is called agriculture.
 Crop
When the same kind of plants are grown in the fields on a large scale to obtain
foods like cereals(wheat, rice, maize), pulses, vegetables and fruits, etc., it is called
a crop.

3.  Based on the practices and area of cultivation and other, factors agriculture
can be categorised into:
 Subsistence Farming
 Intensive Cultivation
 Extensive Cultivation
 Organic Farming
 Mixed farming
 Horticulture
 Sericulture
 Pisciculture
 Apiculture
 Truck farming
 Mushroom Culture

4.  Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus
on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families.
 The land is limited and the cultivation systems are primitive and there is very
little surplus to sell. For example if the total yield is 20 kilograms then only 2 to
3 kilograms will be left for selling.
 Subsistence farming continues today in large parts of rural Africa, and parts
of Asia and Latin America. Subsistence agriculture had largely disappeared in
Europe by the beginning of World War I, and in North America.
 Some of these peoples moved from site to site as they exhausted the soil at each
location.
 As urban centres grew, agricultural production became more specialized and
commercial farming developed, with farmers producing a sizable surplus of
certain crops, which they traded for manufactured goods or sold for cash.

5. .

6.  Intensive agriculture, in agricultural economics, system of cultivation using
large amounts of labour and capital relative to land area.
 Large amounts of labour and capital are necessary to the application
of fertilizer insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides to growing crops, and
capital is particularly important to the acquisition and maintenance of high-efficiency
machinery for planting, cultivating, and harvesting, as well as
irrigation equipment where that is required.
 Multiple cropping is common and high yielding varieties of crops are grown
mainly for commercial purposes.
 Wheat, rice and sugar cane are important crops.
 It is common in the Indian Sub-Continent, China , Japan and Korea.

8.  Extensive agriculture or Extensive Cultivation is a system of crop cultivation
using small amounts of labour and capital in relation to area of land being
farmed. The crop yield in extensive agriculture depends primarily on the
natural fertility of the soil, the terrain, the climate, and the availability of
water.
 It is done on very large farms, up to thousands of acres in size. The use of
machinery and scientific methods of farming produce a large quantity of
crops.
 Wheat cultivation and cattle ranching are main activities here.
 But the yield is very less per acre as compared to the overall production is very
large.
 It is a type of commercial agriculture.
 Extensive Cultivation is common in the Prairies of the USA and Canada,
Australia and Argentina.

10.  A plantation is a long, artificially-established forest, farm or estate,
where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local
on-site consumption.
 Plantations are developed on a large scale as the crops are grown for
commercial purposes, not for local consumption.
 It is normally a single crop cultivation. This type of cultivation was introduced
in 19th century.
 There is a factory on the farm to process the raw product. Crops grown on
plantations include fast growing tress often conifers. E.g. Tea, coffee, bananas,
rubber, sugar cane, pineapple, etc.
 These are grown using scientific methods on specially managed estates .
 Rubber in Malaysia, tea in India and coffee in Brazil are well known examples
of plantation farming.

12.  As the name suggests , in this type of farming no chemical compounds
are used, only natural organic compounds are used.
 It relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost,
and biological pest control.
 Organic farming uses fertilizers and pesticides (which
include herbicides, insecticides , fungicides and weedicides).
 It is like a natural system, in which crops are allowed to grow naturally by
providing them with naturally prepared manures, and capital.
 In this system no genetic modification is used for the enhancement of
the crop yield.
 Organic farming is practised around the globe, but the markets for sale
are strongest in North America and Europe.

14.  When on a farm along-with crop production, some other agriculture
based practice like poultry, dairy farming or bee keeping etc. is adopted,
then this system of farming is known as mixed farming.
 Mixed farming is an agricultural system that mixes farming with the
raising of livestock.
 Indian farmers would have a patch for the cultivation of vegetables, a
fruit or vegetable orchard, a poultry farm and a cattle of cows and goats
on their farmland.
 Advanced countries like USA, Germany, Japan, Australia and others
practice this type of farming on a commercial scale on a large farm.

16.  The farms that are located on the outskirts of big cities produce all kinds
of fresh fruits ,vegetables. These are sent to the cities by trucks on a daily
basis.
 This type of farming is called truck farming.
 Mainly, this type of farming is used for commercial purposes.
 Flowers are also cultivated in truck farms. The cultivation of flowers is
known as horticulture.
 This type of farming is found everywhere in the world, especially in
developed or advanced countries, like USA, Canada, etc.

17.  We all use dairy products in our daily life. All these products come from
dairies.
 Therefore, the rearing of cattle, sheep and goats for the production of
milk, butter, cheese, cream, and other dairy products is called dairy
farming.
 In this type of farming the farmers have cattle on the farm. Some farmers
produce other products also.
 In India very few large farms have been set up; in states such as Gujarat,
Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

19.  The places where farmers have relatively less area for farming, they form
groups or cooperatives.
 The type of farming in which farmers have a mutual joint of farming
between them is referred as cooperative farming.
 In areas where people have unviable small pieces of land found that a
mutual joint of farming is profitable on the basis of cooperative activity.
 This type of farming is practised in countries like Norway, Sweden,
Belgium, Denmark (Greenland) and the Netherlands.
 In India Cooperative Farming is mainly found in Gujarat, Maharashtra
and Tamil Nadu.

20. Thank You