PRIMARY ACTIVITIES (GEO)

Q1) Describe the origin of the word agriculture.

The term Agriculture is derived from the Latin words Ager and Culture.
Ager means soil or field and Culture means tilling..
So, agriculture means tilling the soil. The object of tilling the soils is to raise crops and
plants for the use of mankind. Therefore agriculture means the tilling of the soil for the
purpose of obtaining food and raw materials needed by man.
But in modern times Agriculture means the science ,art or occupation concern with
cultivating land ,raising crops, feeding, breeding and raising livestock.
Q2) What is the significance of agriculture?
1.Agriculture provides the basis of survival for the population by production of food and
raw materials.
2.With time there has been a great increase in population.
3.To meet the requirements of this ever increasing population with its higher purchasing
power, and less and less manpower (because of the high outmigration from rural areas),
agriculture has increased its outputs and productivity.
4.This process has affected the price of agricultural products. When
more people live in the cities and have to buy food at the market, the more agricultural
prices became a political issue.
5.Human history confirms that the spectre of starvation has been a constant threat to
mankind.
6.The prevailing circumstances are such that even advances in science and technology
available to man do not appear to be able to arrest the present rate of population growth,
nor the capability to produce enough food.
7.And, if the present lopsided food population ratio
continued, it would further aggravate the already worsening food problem
Q3.What are the two different types of agriculture?
The two types of agriculture are
1.subsistence agriculture
2.Commercial agriculture
Q4.What are the three types of subsistence agriculture? Describe it.
Types of Subsistence Farming:
a) Nomadic Herding

1.Nomadic herding is an extensive form of animal grazing on natural pasturage, entailing
constant or seasonal migration of the nomads along with their flocks.
2.Nomadic herding is confined to sparsely populated parts of the world where the natural
vegetation is mainly grass and the rainfall is low and seasonal.
3. It is practiced by the Bedouin of Saudi Arabia, and the Tuareg
of the Sahara practice nomadic, herding in the desert and semi-desert areas of South-
West.
b) Livestock Ranching

1.Under this system of farming the major emphasis is laid on rearing of animals but the
farmers live a settled life.
2.This type of farming has developed on a commercial basis in those areas of the world
where large areas are available for animal grazing, such as the low rainfall areas of North
America, South America and Australia.
3. Animals are reared mainly for meat and wool and they are kept on large scale farms
called the ranches
.
c) Shifting Cultivation:

1.This is the type of farming adopted generally in the rainy tropics.
2.Under this system the land for cultivation is obtained by clearing off the forests with the
help of slashing and burning technique.
3. It is cultivated for a few years till the fertility declines or the land is overtaken by
the weeds etc.and then the land is abandoned and a new plot is cleared for farming.

Q3) Differentiate between subsistence and commercial farming.

Subsistence Farming
1.It is a form of farming in which nearly all of the crops or livestock raised are used to
maintain the farmer and the farmers family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or
trade.
2.In the past people throughout the world have traditionally practiced subsistence
farming.
3.Some of these peoples moved from site to site as they exhausted the soil at each
location.
4.Subsistence farming persists today on a relatively wide scale in various areas of the
world including large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Subsistence farms usually consist of no
more than a few acres and farm technology tends to be primitive and of low yield.

COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

1.Commercial agriculture is production of crops for sale and profit, although the farmers and
their families may use a small amount of what they produce.
2.Profits may be reinvested to improve the farm.
3.Largescale commercial farming is agribusiness Commercial agriculture or cash crops are
grown mainly for export purposes for earning revenue or sold locally.
4.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

Q4) Give three factors that led to the transformation of subsistence farming into
commercial farming.

1.As human population increased the demand for higher production of food also went up.
2.The industrial revolution in Europe provided more efficient and more specialized
agricultural implements such as plough, threshing machines, harvesters, tractors and
milking machines.
3.In North America mechanization enabled farmers to expand and specialize in the
production of commodities that could be sold for the maximum profit. Thus specialized
commercial agricultural systems emerged there, which gave rise to distinct crop regions
wheat belt, cotton belt, Corn Belt, dairy farming and truck farming regions.
3.In other parts of the world also similar technological revolutions brought power driven
machines, in addition, adoption of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides
increased the yield of crops dramatically in many areas, though at varying rates.
WORKSHEET-4
1.What is mining?
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from
the earth from an ore body, lode, vein, or reef, which forms the mineralized
package of economic interest to the miner.
Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such
as petroleum, natural gas, or even water.

2. Why mining is considered to be a kind of robbery /robber industry?
1.In contrast to agriculture or forestry, mining is a kind of robbery or plundering
economy
because a mineral once mined is lost forever as a natural resource.
2. The natural replacement of minerals depends entirely on geological events. It
is, therefore, the prime objective of different nations to utilize the mineral
resources in the best possible way.
3. What are the three points of difference between open cast and
shaft mining?
a) Open Cast Mining:

1.Mining at the surface rather than underground. Open-pit mines are
used when deposits of commercially helpful minerals or rock are found close to the
surface; that is, where the overburden (layer material covering the valuable deposit) is
comparatively thin or the material of interest is structurally inappropriate for tunneling.
2.Coal, iron ore, and phosphates are often extracted by opencast mining.
3.Often the mineral deposit is covered by soil, which must first be stripped off, usually by
large machines such as walking draglines and bucket-wheel excavators.
4.The ore deposit is then broken up by explosives.
5.One of the largest excavations in the world has been made by opencast mining at the
Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah, USA, measuring 790 m/2,590 ft deep and 3.7
km/2.3 mi across.

b.Shaft Mining:

1.Shaft mining is a type of underground mining done by use of a mine shaft.
2.A mine shaft is a vertical passageway used for access to an underground mine.
3.On the surface above the shaft stands a building known as the head frame, which in
previous years contained a winding engine and in modern times contains an electric hoist
controller.
4.This raises and lowers the cage within the shaft. The cage serves as a lift for
the transportation of minerals, equipment, and workers.
5.Shaft mining is the deepest form of underground mining. Underground mining is chosen
when the rock or mineral is too far to reach using surface mining
4. How can minerals be classified?
Metals can be classified on the basis of their physical, chemical and other properties. Thus
they can be classified into
1.FERROUS MINERALS- Iron, chromium, tin etc. come under ferrous minerals.
2.NON FERROUS MINERALS - Copper, gold, platinum are non ferrous minerals.
3.ENERGY GIVING MINERALS - Coal, petroleum, natural gas are energy resources

5. How does mining play a significant role in the economic
development of the country?

Mining and the processing of minerals exert tremendous impact on the economic well
being of a country in a number of ways which can be summarized as follows;-

(a) They provide employment opportunities
(b) They attract population to be settled around the mining sites
(c) They stimulate the development of transportation
(d) They open new scope for export earnings.
(e) Minerals extended the scope for the development of domestic industries