Agriculture as an Economic Activity
The practice or science of growing crops and rearing livestock is called agriculture. The economies of many countries of the world depend on the production and export of agricultural products. That is why agriculture is 1 considered one of the basic economic activities. Since ancient times, human beings have been obtaining food in many ways. They kept animals for various purposes and learned the skill of crops cultivation. Even today, the basic source of our food is crops. In the backward and developing countries, manpower is mostly associated with agricultural profession. Mechanized agriculture practices have been using minimum labor.
Do you know?
Agriculture started about 10,000 years ago in the valleys of River Nile, adopted in the developed countries. As a Indus, Ganges, Hwang Hu etc. The result, maximum yield is being produced by beginning of agriculture in that era is called Neolithic revolution.
Types of Agriculture
The following are important types of agriculture in the world:
Subsistence Farming.
Even in this modern age, traditional methods are adopted for the cultivation of food crops like rice, maize, and vegetables, The basic objective of the farmers in subsistence farming is to provide food to their own families. It means, the farmers produce as much crops as they need for their own families.
Intensive Farming
In this type of agriculture, two or more crops are cultivated in a year on the same piece of land. Intensive farming is common in Pakistan, Japan, India and European countries. In the developed countries and the countries with shortage of cultivable land and over population, the farmers use best quality seeds, fertilizers, more labour force and machinery to get maximum yield from small farms.
Extensive Farming
In extensive farming, farmers leave their farms uncultivated for one or more seasons in order to maintain the soil fertility. The countries, which have plenty of cultivable land, reserve separate farms for every specific crop. Moreover, the farmers bring new lands under plough to get more production.
Plantation Farming
Some crops like rubber, cane, coconut, tea, coffee and spices etc, are planted. Therefore, it is called plantation farming. This type of agriculture is common in West Indies, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Kenya etc.
Commercial Farming
In this type of agriculture, the farmers mainly produce for marketing purposes. In commercial farming, the crops having high market demand like wheat, maize etc, are cultivated.
Truck Farming
It is difficult to preserve fruits and vegetables for a long period of time. That is why they are cultivated near to the cities and transported there. It is, therefore, called truck farming.
Mixed Farming
In this type of agriculture, different crops are grown simultaneously on the same farm. For example, fruit orchards are cultivated along with grain crops.
Agriculture in Pakistan
Pakistan is an agricultural country. We have all the major four seasons of the year, i,e., summer, winter, autumn and spring, which are suitable for the cultivation of all types of crops. However, the scarcity of rainfall is a major problem. Due to this reason, our agriculture depends on irrigation, whereas, the rain fed agriculture is much less. Here, vast plane and fertile lands are available, which are formed of alluvium deposited by Indus River and its tributaries. Majority of the people of Pakistan living in rural areas are engaged in agricultural profession.
Irrigated Farming
Out of the total under-cultivation land in Pakistan, nearly 82% is being irrigated. It is called irrigated farming. Apart from the traditional methods like tubewell and Persian wheel, canal irrigation is also very common. The canals are constructed to carry down water from barrages. The Upper and Lower Indus Plains are very important for irrigated agriculture.
Rain-fed Farming
In Pakistan, the rain-fed farming is practiced on a very small scale. In this type of agriculture, the crops depend on rainfall. In Potohar plateau, the district of Rawalpindi, Chakwal and Attock are famous for rain-fed agriculture. From here towards south, the amount of annual rainfall gradually decreases. Therefore, the rain-fed farming is also very limited.
Mountainous Agriculture
Like in other countries, terrace fields are also found in the mountainous areas of Pakistan. In these fields maize, wheat, rice and vegetable are grown at limited scale. This cultivation is totally dependent upon rainfall, except in areas where springs are available for irrigation.
