Agriculture includes raising of crops, animal rearing, animal husbandry and fishing. Agriculture and farming are synonymous to each other.
Types of Farming
Physical elements such as climate, relief, soil, human factors such as density of population, technological development, traditions, social, economic and political factors have great impact on the farming practices, production methods and cropping pattern.
Plantation Agriculture
- Plantation agriculture is the practice of farming in which crops are cultivated on hundreds of hectares of land in a highly specialised form on the lines of factory organisation.
- In plantation agriculture a particular crop is sown once and the yield is generally obtained continuously for a number of years.
- Plantation agriculture is done in the areas having high temperature and continual rain-fall.
- Plantation agriculture requires a long growing period.
- Rubber, tea, coconut, bananas etc. are plantation crops.
- It is practised in Kerala, Karnataka, Assam and Maharashtra.
Commercial agriculture
- Commercial agriculture is the practice of farming in which crops are raised on a large scale with a view to export them to other countries and earn money.
- Purpose of commercial agriculture is to sell the produce for money.
- Commercial agriculture is done mostly in sparsely populated areas.
- Commercial agricultural crop may be grown under any pattern of agriculture.
- Wheat, Cotton, Sugarcane, Corn, etc. are commercial crops.
Intensive farming
- Intensive farming is a type of agriculture aiming at maximum possible production on the limited farms with all efforts possible under the circumstances.
- Huge capital and human labour is employed on every hectare of land.
- Intensive farming is capable of raising more than one crop a year.
- It is practised in most parts of thickly population.
Extensive farming
- It is a modern system of farming done on large farms. It is also known as mechanical farming due to extensive use of machines.
- Employment of labour and capital per hectare of land is comparatively less.
- Extensive farming raises only one crop a year.
- It is practised in sparsely populated area like USA, Canada, Russia and Australia.
Dry farming
- Dry farming is that type of farming in which moisture is maintained by raising special type of crops.
- This is practised in dry areas of the country such as Western, North-western India and Central India.
- Moisture maintaining crops are raised in this practice of farming. Gram and peas are important such crops.
- There is vast dependence on irrigation.
Wet Farming
- Wet farming is a type of farming which depends mainly upon rains.
- This type of farming is prevalent in the North, North-eastern, Eastern India and on the Western slopes of the Western Ghats.
- In this types of farming rice, jute and mesta are grown.
- There is no irrigation required.
Cropping patterns
Cropping patterns are forms in which agricultural crops are raised. In India the following cropping patterns are prevalent:
Uni cropping pattern: It is a method of raising agricultural crops in which only one crop is raised on an agricultural field at one time.
Example: Tea, Coffee, Sugarcane, Maize etc.
Double Cropping Pattern: In the dual cropping pattern two crops are raised on a farm at a time.
Example: Barley, mustard, wheat; jowar, bajra, ground nut.
In the double cropping and multiple cropping patterns it is kept in mind that crops are combined in such a way that soil nutrients removed by one crop are replaced by other crop.
Agricultural seasons
India is primarily an agricultural country. Climate, especially rainfall controls agricultural activities. In the extreme hot and dry season, agricultural activities come almost to a grinding halt. We have two agricultural seasons in India depending upon rainfall occurrence. These are Rabi and Kharif season. June to October is the period of Kharif. During the season rice, jowar, maize, jute and cotton are raised. Rabi season is from November to April. Wheat, gram, barley, peas, linseed and mustard crops are grown in this season.
Kharif season
- Kharif cropping season starts from the onset of Monsoon and ends up with the end of Monsoon.
- Kharif season is from June or early July to the end of September or early October. Sowing of crops starts in June or early July and harvest begins by the middle of September or early October.
- Major crops of Kharif season include rice, millets, maize, groundnuts, jute and cotton. Pulses like moong, urad and arhar are also grown in this season. Arhar takes longer period to mature than other crops.
Rabi Season
Rabi cropping season starts with the season of Retreating Monsoon and ends up with the start of summer season.
Rabi season spreads from late October or early November to April-May.
Major crops of Rabi season are wheat, gram, barley, oilseeds like mustard seed and rapeseed. Pulses like masoor are also grown in this season.
Impact of Globalisation on agricultural products
Globalisation means the process of making exposure to world countries of any product whether is agricultural or industrial so that it become competitive in the world market. Rules of World Trade Organisation (WTO) are to be adopted if one country wants to compete with other countries of the world.
India has been making big strides in the agricultural production so that it can maximise its exports. But the impact of globalisation on India’s exports has been amix lot. Our agri-exports face certain uncertainties and certain constraints which arise from our conflicting domestic policies. They are related to production, distribution, food security and pricing concerns. As a result of globalisation India has lost its competitiveness in the export market of major agricultural commodities like rice, wheat, edible oils, tea and coffee.
We have increased Minimum Support Prices (MSP) of rice and wheat considerably. It has resulted our export competitiveness in the international market. In the matter of wheat exports till 1990’s we were the marginal export country in the world market, thought we were exporting around 100 million tonnes of wheat every year. Now we export only 3 to 5 millions of wheat annually. As a result of globalisation the prices of wheat in the world market has decreased so much that our exports of wheat has become uneconomical.
If we consider the prices of edible oils—mainly groundnut oil and mustard oils—they are twice as high as that in the international market, of most globally traded oils because our cost of production of oil seeds and extraction of oil both are very high. But due to our production of oils shorter than our requirement, we have to import about 4 million tonnes of edible oils annually. The global low prices of edible oils have benefited us a lot during the last 3 or 4 years since globalisation has got impetus in the world sphere. Recent decline in international production of edible oils does not bode well for India as this would lead to rise in prices of edible oils in the global market and India will have to pay for its imports of edible oils.
