Agriculture — Social Science STD 8 — Question

Subsistence farming can be further classified as intensive subsistence and primitive subsistence farming.
Intensive subsistence agriculture: In intensive subsistence agriculture the farmer cultivates a small plot of land using simple tools and more labour. Rice is the main crop. Other crops include wheat, maize, pulses and oilseeds. Intensive subsistence agriculture is prevalent in the thickly populated areas of the monsoon regions of south, southeast and east Asia.
Primitive subsistence agriculture: It includes shifting cultivation and nomadic herding.

1. Shifting cultivation is practised in the thickly forested areas of Amazon basin, tropical Africa, parts of Southeast Asia and Northeast India. A plot of land is cleared by felling the trees and burning them. The ashes are then mixed with the soil and crops like maize, yam, potatoes and cassava are grown. After the soil loses its fertility, the land is abandoned and the cultivator moves to a new plot.
2. Nomadic herding is practised in the semi-arid and arid regions of Sahara, Central Asia and some parts of India, like Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. In this type of farming, herdsmen move from place to place with their animals for fodder and water, along defined routes.