Questions on Agriculture in India

1. Differentiate between intensive and extensive farming?

The basic difference between these two types of farming is the amount of production from per unit of land. USA, Canada, former USSR are the major countries where extensive farming is practiced whereas Japan is the leading example of intensive farming.

2. Explain geographical conditions required for the cultivation of cotton?

(i) Uniformly high temperature varying between 21°C and 30°C (ii) It grows mostly in the areas having at least 210 frost free days in a year (iii) It requires modest amount of rainfall of 50 to 100 cm. However, cotton is successfully grown by the help of irrigation in the areas where rainfall is less than 50 cm (iv) high amount of rainfall in the beginning and sunny and dry weather at the time of ripening are very useful for a good crop

(v) cotton cultivation is very closely related to Black soils. However, it also grows well in alluvial soils of the Satluj-Ganga plain and red and laterite soils of the peninsular region (vi) as picking of cotton has not been made mechanized till now, therefore a lot of cheap and efficient labour is required at the time of picking

3. How would climate change would affect agriculture in India? Explain any two situations.

Due to climatic change, temperature would increase by 2 to 3 degree Celsius, increase in sea level, more intense cyclone, unpredictable rainfall. These changes would adversely affect the production of rice and wheat. Specifically rise in temperature in winter would affect production of wheat in north India. Production of rice would be affected in coastal areas of India due to ingress of saline water and increase of frequency of cyclone.