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Rinjha lived with her family in a small village Plantation is also a type of commercial at the outskirts of Diphu in Assam. She enjoys farming. In this type of farming, a single crop watching her family members clearing, is grown on a large area. The pla...

Rinjha lived with her family in a small village Plantation is also a type of commercial at the outskirts of Diphu in Assam. She enjoys farming. In this type of farming, a single crop watching her family members clearing, is grown on a large area. The plantation has slashing and burning a patch of land for an interface of agriculture and industry. cultivation. She often helps them in irrigating Plantations cover large tracts of land, using the fields with water running through a capital intensive inputs, with the help of bamboo canal from the nearby spring. She migrant labourers. All the produce is used loves the surroundings and wants to stay as raw material in respective industries. here as long as she can, but this little girl In India, tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, has no idea about the declining fertility of banana, etc., are important plantation crops. the soil and her family’s search for fresh a Tea in Assam and North Bengal coffee in patch of land in the next season. Kar nataka are some of the important plantation crops grown in these states. Since Can you name the type of farming Rinjha’s the production is mainly for market, a well- family is engaged in? developed network of transport and Can you enlist some crops which are grown communication connecting the plantation in such farming? areas, processing industries and markets plays an important role in the development Intensive Subsistence Farming of plantations. This type of farming is practised in areas of high population pressure on land. It is labour- intensive farming, where high doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation are used for obtaining higher production. Can you name some of the states of India where such farming is practised? Though the ‘right of inheritance’ leading to the division of land among successive generations has rendered land-holding size uneconomical, the farmers continue to take maximum output from the limited land in Fig. 4.2: Banana plantation in Southern the absence of alternative source of livelihood. part of India Thus, there is enormous pressure on agricultural land. Commercial Farming The main characteristic of this type of farming is the use of higher doses of modern inputs, e.g. high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides in order to obtain higher productivity. The degree of commercialisation of agriculture varies from one region to another. For example, rice is a commercial crop in Haryana and Punjab, but in Odisha, it is a subsistence crop. Can you give some more examples of crops which may be commercial in one region and may provide subsistence in another region? Fig. 4.3: Bamboo plantation in North-east A GRICULTURE 31 Reprint 2024-25