Class 8 CBSE Social Science Chapter 3: Agriculture

1. Introduction to Agriculture

These notes of Chapter 3: Agriculture, cover the entire chapter as per the latest CBSE syllabus. Draw neat labelled diagrams of types of farming, major crop-producing regions, and India vs USA comparison table in your notebook for better marks. Happy learning!

Key Points:

• Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating crops and rearing animals (primary activity).
• More than 50 % of the world’s population is still dependent on agriculture for livelihood.
• In India, about 45–50 % of the workforce is engaged in agriculture (2023–24 data).
• It provides food for humans, fodder for animals, and raw materials for agro-based industries (cotton textiles, jute, sugar, edible oil, etc.).

2. Types of Farming

3. Major Types of Agriculture in India

1. Shifting Cultivation (Jhum / Podu / Bewar)
   • Land cleared by slashing and burning → cultivated for 2–3 years → abandoned → new patch cleared.
   • Practised in north-east states, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh.
   • Crops: maize, millets, vegetables.
2. Intensive Subsistence Farming
   • Small landholdings, family labour, high use of manure, HYV seeds.
   • Mainly in monsoon Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China).
3. Commercial Grain Farming
   • Large mechanised farms, single crop (wheat, maize).
   • Temperate grasslands: Prairies, Steppes, Pampas, Velds, Downs.
4. Plantation Agriculture
   • Introduced by British in India.
   • Tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana.

4. Major Crops of the World

5. Agricultural Development

• Aim: To produce sufficient food for growing population and raw material for industries.
• Efforts in developing countries:
  • Increasing cultivable area (but most fertile land already used).
  • Increasing productivity per hectare → Green Revolution.
  • Multiple cropping and modern inputs (HYV seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation).

Green Revolution in India (1960s–70s)

• Introduced by Dr M.S. Swaminathan.
• HYV seeds of wheat (Punjab, Haryana, western UP) and rice (coastal Andhra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal).
• Result: India became self-sufficient in food grains by late 1970s.

6. Farming in India – Geographical Conditions

• Rice → Needs high temperature, high humidity, more than 100 cm rainfall → grown in West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra, UP, Punjab (with irrigation).
• Wheat → Cool growing season, bright sunshine at ripening → Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, MP.
• Tea → Tropical & sub-tropical, 150–300 cm well-distributed rainfall, hill slopes → Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiri, Kerala.
• Cotton → Black soil (regur) of Deccan plateau, temperature 21–30 °C, 50–100 cm rainfall → Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra, Karnataka.

7. Farming in the USA (A Case Study)

• Highly mechanised, very less labour required.
• Large average farm size (250 hectares in USA vs 1–2 hectares in India).
• Main crops: maize, soybean, wheat, cotton, sugarbeet.
• Corn Belt & Wheat Belt famous.
• Inputs: Capital-intensive – tractors, seed drills, levellers, combines, aeroplanes for spraying.
• Outputs sold in world market → commercial farming.

8. Comparison: Farming in India vs USA

9. Key Terms

• Sericulture → Commercial rearing of silkworms for silk.
• Pisciculture → Breeding of fish commercially.
• Viticulture → Cultivation of grapes.
• Horticulture → Growing vegetables, flowers, fruits.
• Golden Fibre → Jute.
• Beverage crops → Tea and coffee.
• Slash and burn agriculture → Shifting cultivation.

10. Important Points for Examination

1. Difference between subsistence and commercial farming.
2. Conditions required for rice, wheat, tea, cotton.
3. Major producers of rice, wheat, tea, coffee, cotton, jute.
4. Features of plantation agriculture.
5. Why is agriculture in USA highly mechanised?
6. Impact of Green Revolution in India.
7. Name the cropping seasons in India: Kharif, Rabi, Zaid.

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Chapter 4: Industries

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