Using the code given below identify the type of farming on the basis of given characteristics : 1. The produce is consumed entirely or mainly by the family who work the land or tend the livestock. 2. If a small surplus is produced, it may be sold or bartered. 3. It is generally small scale and labour intensive with little or no technological input. Code :

Correct — C, Subsistence farming. Take the three clues as a set. Produce consumed entirely or mainly by the family that works the land is the definition of subsistence agriculture — NCERT states it as farming in which the farming areas consume all, or nearly so, of the products locally grown. The second clue, that a small surplus may be sold or bartered, does not break that definition; subsistence never meant that nothing is ever sold, only that sale is incidental rather than the purpose of the enterprise. The third clue, small scale and labour intensive with little or no technological input, fits the household farm worked with family labour and simple tools, and rules out any system organised around machinery and hired hands. Only one option satisfies all three at once.

• (a)Extensive farming — Extensive farming is defined by a low input of labour and capital spread over very large holdings — the wheat farms of the Prairies and the Steppes, and livestock ranching. It contradicts the third clue about labour intensity, and it exists in order to sell, which contradicts the first.
• (b)Intensive farming — The subtlest wrong answer, because intensive subsistence agriculture in monsoon Asia genuinely is both things at once. Intensive on its own says only how much labour or capital goes into each hectare, and it covers thoroughly commercial systems such as Dutch glasshouse horticulture. What decides this question is the first clue, about who eats the produce, and that clue names the destination rather than the intensity.
• (d)Commercial farming — Commercial farming is defined by the market destination of its output, which the first clue rules out directly. Its usual companions — large holdings, machinery, purchased inputs and hired labour — are also the opposite of the third clue.

NCERT divides subsistence agriculture in two. Primitive subsistence agriculture is shifting cultivation, practised by many tribal communities across the tropics of Africa, South and Central America and South-East Asia: vegetation is cleared by fire, the ash fertilises a small patch, cultivation is done with sticks and hoes, and after three to five years the soil loses fertility and the patch is abandoned for a new one. Intensive subsistence agriculture is the system of densely populated monsoon Asia, where holdings are tiny, family labour is applied heavily to each plot, and yields per hectare are pushed as high as simple technology allows.

The local names for shifting cultivation are examined often enough to be worth memorising — Milpa in Mexico, Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia, Roca in Brazil, Masole in the Congo, Chena in Sri Lanka and Jhum in north-east India. The four options in this question in fact belong to two different classifications that examiners deliberately mix. Subsistence and commercial answer the question of where the output goes; intensive and extensive answer the question of how much input goes into each hectare. A farm can be intensive and subsistence, intensive and commercial, extensive and commercial — so an item like this is settled by identifying which classification the clues are describing.

• Subsistence agriculture is farming in which the produce is consumed almost entirely by the household that grows it.
• Its two NCERT subdivisions are primitive subsistence agriculture, which is shifting cultivation, and intensive subsistence agriculture, found in densely populated monsoon Asia.
• Shifting cultivation clears land by fire, uses the ash as fertiliser, and abandons the patch after three to five years.
• Local names for shifting cultivation include Milpa in Mexico, Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia, Roca in Brazil, Masole in the Congo and Jhum in north-east India.
• Subsistence and commercial classify farming by the destination of the output; intensive and extensive classify it by input per unit of land.

• Choosing intensive because the clues mention heavy labour, when intensity is a different axis from destination.
• Assuming subsistence means literally nothing is ever sold, which the second clue is designed to test.
• Equating small scale with extensive; extensive farming is defined by low input per hectare over large holdings.

Asked as a characteristics-to-category item — three descriptive clues are supplied and the candidate has to work out which classification they belong to before picking the label.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Milpa, Ladang and Jhum are regional names for which one of the following?

  • (a)Plantation agriculture
  • (b)Shifting cultivation
  • (c)Mixed farming
  • (d)Commercial grain farming

  Answer(b) Shifting cultivation — the primitive form of subsistence agriculture, known as Milpa in Mexico, Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia, and Jhum in north-east India.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Extensive commercial grain farming is most characteristic of which one of the following regions?

  • (a)The Ganga plain
  • (b)The Prairies of North America
  • (c)The Nile delta
  • (d)The islands of Indonesia

  Answer(b) The Prairies of North America — large holdings, heavy mechanisation and low labour input per hectare, with the whole crop grown for the market.