This article gives a brief summary for quick revision during exams, MCQs, and additional/extra questions and answers of NBSE Class 10 Social Science Chapter 7 "Agriculture".
Contents
Introduction to the chapter: Agriculture is still the principal source of income in many developing countries, including India. In India, agriculture provides a living for about 70% of the workforce. Agriculture provides raw materials for companies in addition to generating food grains. Agricultural products such as tea, coffee, spices, and others are exported, generating foreign cash for the country.
Technological and institutional reforms
Agriculture guarantees the country's food security and provides a variety of raw resources for industry. As a result, agricultural progress is critical to our country's long-term success. Constant land use, along with a lack of relevant technological and institutional reforms, has slowed agricultural progress. Monsoons, natural fertility, and seeds are still used by the majority of farmers.
- To keep production going, old irrigation methods including flooding fields and using the Persian wheel, wooden plough, and bullock waggon are still in use.
- This has major ramifications, as agriculture continues to be the primary source of income for over 70% of our population. Technical and institutional reforms must be implemented as soon as possible.
- The Right of Inheritance has resulted in small, fragmented landholdings that are not economically viable. After India gained independence, this caused complications.
- The main objective of India's First Five Year Plan was 'Land Reform.' Producing enough food to feed India's expanding population has become a major concern.
- The government implemented a number of land reforms to improve the state of agriculture and the farmer, including the abolition of zamindari, collectivization, and consolidation of landholdings.
- In the 1960s and 1970s, the government implemented agricultural changes as a result of these land reforms. These measures were put in place in order to improve agriculture. The White Revolution (Operation Flood) and the Green Revolution (Operation Flood) were started to improve Indian agriculture.
- The Green Revolution is a term that is commonly used to characterise India's dramatic growth in food grain output.
- By the 1980s and 1990s, it was evident that a comprehensive land development programme, encompassing both institutional and technological reforms, was required.
- The government took the lead by offering a variety of services on its own which included subsidies on power, seeds, and fertilisers, crop insurance, weather updates and agricultural programmes on television and radio, loans to modernise agriculture through a well-connected rural banking network, minimum support price, price remuneration and procurement for vital crops, Kisan Credit Card (KCC), and the Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS).
Contribution of agriculture towards national economy
Agriculture has always been the foundation of the Indian economy. Despite the fact that agriculture's percentage of GDP is dropping, its contribution to providing jobs and livelihoods to the population remains as high as 60% in 2013.
- Sugar, jute, cotton, tobacco, tea, and other agricultural products are used as raw materials in the industry. Agro-based sectors, such as food processing, are becoming more important, particularly as export items. Rice, cotton textiles, tea, jute, cashew, tobacco, and coffee all have a significant agricultural component in India's overseas commerce.
- The economy's underdevelopment is reflected in its strong reliance on agricultural commodity exports. However, the recent arrival of processed foods into the market is a positive step toward generating foreign currency.
- Irrigation pumps, fertilisers, insecticides, pesticides, plastic, PVC pipes, machinery, tools, and other things are all sold to farmers through agriculture.
- For roughly 60% of the population, a successful harvest brings more purchasing power. As a result, agriculture indirectly contributes to the expansion of our economy's secondary and tertiary sectors.
- Following the changes of July 1991, a few steps were taken to liberalise agricultural commerce. Almost all agricultural products, with the exception of onion, cotton, ginger, and niger seeds, have been liberalised as a result of this.
The aftermath and the way ahead
The Green Revolution elevated expectations for huge yields to new heights, but it is now dogged by controversy. It is claimed that it has caused the extinction of biodiversity, the drying up of aquifers, and land degradation as a result of misuse of chemicals and exploitation. The Green Revolution appears to be waning, and agriculture productivity gains are now gradually decreasing.
- The focus now is on the Gene Revolution, an agricultural revolution based on recent genetic engineering breakthroughs. It makes use of genetically modified seeds to generate plants that have a higher production potential in locations where there is a lot of pesticide and fertiliser use.
- Around 600 million people in India's rural rely on approximately 250 million hectares of farming. This equates to less than half a hectare of land per person on average. As a result, the land is scarce.
- It is important to note that if the land is used to grow high-value crops rather than grains, India will have to import food and export high-value commodities.
I. Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs): Exercise
1. The most important fibre crop in India is:
Answer: (a) Cotton
2. The most important occupation of the people of India is:
Answer: (b) Agriculture
3. Which of the following types of economic activity is agriculture?
Answer: (a) Primary activity
4. Rice is a subsistence crop in Odisha; in which of the following states is rice a commercial crop?
Answer: (c) Punjab and Haryana
5. Which one of the following describes a system of agriculture where a single crop is grown on a large area?
Answer: (b) Plantation agriculture
6. Which of the following is a Rabi crop?
Answer: (b) Gram
7. Which of the following crops are produced during Zaid cropping season?
Answer: (b) Muskmelon
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs): Extras
1. Which of the farming type is labour intensive farming.
a. Primitive subsistence
b. Intensive subsistence
c. Commercial farming
d. All the above
Answer: B. Intensive subsistence
2. Which of the types of crops are harvested between September and October?
a. Rabi
b. Kharif
c. Zaid
d. None of the above
Answer: B. Kharif
3. India is the third-largest producer of:
a. Cotton
b. Jute
c. Coffee
d. Oilseeds
Answer: A. Cotton
4. India is the largest producer of:
a. Cotton
b. Jute
c. Coffee
d. Oilseeds
Answer: D. Oilseeds
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