Human Activities Test - 1

The correct answer is the primary sector.

Important Points

• More than 50% of the working population in India depends on the primary sector.
• The primary activity includes those occupations which are closely related to man’s natural environment.
  • The most important feature of the primary sector is that it forms the base for all other activities.
  • These economic functions deliver the raw material for other industries, which further refine and develop these materials into products to sell to customers.
  • Some important examples of primary activities are Gathering, hunting, fishing, lumbering, animal rearing, farming, and mining.
    • Animal rearing or dairy is a primary activity. In this activity, farmers are dependent on the biological process of the animals, and the availability of fodder, etc. The product, milk, is also natural.
• Secondary activities are those activities that involve the manufacturing of finished goods by processing the raw materials that are found in nature.
  • It is known as the manufacturing sector.
  • Some examples of the secondary sector include metalworking and smelting, automobile production, textile production, chemical and engineering industries, aerospace manufacturing, energy utilities, engineering, breweries and bottlers, construction, and shipbuilding.
• The Tertiary sector is known as the service sector.
  • This sector provides useful services to primary and secondary sectors for this functioning of their working.
  • Services related to banking, insurance, trade, and communication come in this sector.

Retail and wholesale trade is an example of Quaternaries activities.

Key Points

Economic activity:

• Economic activity is the activity of making, providing, purchasing or selling goods or services. Any action that involves producing, distributing, or consuming products or services is an economic activity.
• Types of economic activity
  • Production
  • Distribution
  • Consumption 
• There are five sectors of economic activity

Sectors of economic activity:

The correct answer is Subsistence agriculture.

Key Points

• The predominant type of Indian agriculture is subsistence agriculture.
• In this, farmers grow food to feed themselves and their dependents.

• Features of intensive subsistence agriculture:
  • Small Holdings:
    • It is practiced in a smaller piece of land to meet the personal need first and sell the rest if it is in surplus.
  • Very Intensive Farming: 
    • Due to the very limited space of usable land for agriculture, farmers try to make as much as possible with their crops.
    • The farming is so intensive that they sometimes practice double- or treble-cropping.
  • Requires Much Hand Labour:
    • The intensive subsistence farmers don’t use much technology in their farming nor much machinery and thus much hand labor is required.
    • These farmers usually use traditional techniques and simple tools to produce the best products possible.
  • Use Of Animal And Plant Manures:
    • Farmers often use every available type of manure such as farm wastes, rotten vegetables, animal dung, and human excreta etc.

The correct answer is Catching fish.

• Catching fish is a primary activity because this economic activity is directly related to the nature, i.e. product is extracted from the nature.

Key Points 

•  The secondary sector or secondary economic activity definition - 
  • It includes economic activities that create finished products for consumption (consumer goods).
  • It takes the production of the primary activities and manufactures new end goods.   
• ​Usually, the secondary activities are divided into two sectors - light industry and heavy industry.
• Light industries of the secondary sector
  • The light industry is mostly labour-intensive and does not require large quantities of raw materials or large areas for production.
  • It is also more geared towards producing for the end consumer than for other companies.
  •  light industry is a manufacturing activity that uses a moderate amount of partially processed products to create goods with a relatively high price per unit weight.
  • Examples - 
    • Food manufacturing such as dog and cat food manufacturing,
    • Textiles mills, textile product mills, apparel manufacturing, leather, and allied product manufacturing.
    • flour and rice milling and malt,
    • breakfast cereal, chocolate and confectionery,
    • frozen food, dried and dehydrated food,
    • ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturing, etc.
• Heavy industries of the secondary sector -
  •  Heavy Industry refers to the production of large-scale goods with a large-scale manufacturing process. In this type of industry, the use of capital is intensive.
  • It employs a lot of raw materials, facilities, and areas for production.
  • Heavy industry is a term usually used to denominate the manufacture of large projects.
  • Examples -
    • Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing 
    • Chemical manufacturing
    • Glass and glass products
    • Cement and concrete production
    • Iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing
    • Transportation Equipment Manufacturing 

The correct answer is Canada.

Key Points

• Intensive farming is the kind of farming in which farmers grow their crops, fruits, and vegetables on a small piece of land using simple tools.
• These farmers usually grow food for personal use, or they sell it to local groceries.
• It is also used to describe a type of agriculture characterized by high output per unit of land and low output per worker. 
• Intensive subsistence farming is best developed in the monsoon lands of Asia.
• This type of agriculture can be found in China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
• It is also found in a big part of continental South-East Asia, and some parts of insular South-East Asia as well.

Additional Information

• Features of intensive subsistence agriculture:
  • Small Holdings:
    • It is practiced in a smaller piece of land to meet the personal need first and sell the rest if it is in surplus.
  • Very Intensive Farming: 
    • Due to the very limited space of usable land for agriculture, farmers try to make as much as possible with their crops.
    • The farming is so intensive that they sometimes practice double- or treble-cropping.
  • Requires Much Hand Labour:
    • The intensive subsistence farmers don’t use much technology in their farming nor much machinery and thus much hand labor is required.
    • These farmers usually use traditional techniques and simple tools to produce the best products possible.
  • Use Of Animal And Plant Manures:
    • Farmers often use every available type of manure such as farm wastes, rotten vegetables, animal dung, and human excreta etc.

The correct answer is Trading.

Key Points

• Tertiary activities consist of all service occupations. Transport, communication, trade, health, education, and administration are important examples of tertiary activities.
• It includes both production and exchange.
• Production involves the provision of services that are consumed.
• Tertiary activities are generally divided into four categories: social services, distribution services, services to companies and services to consumers.
• Social services are provided by public and private sectors and they include activities related to administration, education and healthcare.

• Tertiary activities typically require qualification and personal effort.
• The value that is given in the tertiary sector cannot be stored.
• Services are demanded when needed and thus must be close to consumers.
• The tertiary sector has a low level of mechanization. Most services cannot be offered using machinery.
• The tertiary sector of the economy is a collection of industries that produce mostly intangible value, meaning value that has no physical form.
• It is a hallmark of advanced economies to have a large tertiary sector that generates a high percentage of GDP and employment.
• Examples - 
  • Education
  • Utilities
  • Transportation
  • Hospitality
  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Media
  • Entertainment
  • Events

Additional Information

• ​The primary sector of the economy extracts or harvests products from the earth such as raw materials and basic foods.
• Activities associated with primary economic activity include agriculture, mining, forestry, grazing, hunting and gathering, fishing, and quarrying.

Animal Husbandry:

• Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.
• Animal husbandry deals with the care and breeding of livestock like buffaloes, cows, pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, camels, goats, etc., that are useful to humans.
• Extended, it includes poultry farming and fisheries.
• Fisheries include rearing, catching, selling, etc., of fish, molluscs (shellfish), and crustaceans (prawns, crabs, etc.).
• It is estimated that more than 70 percent of the world's livestock population is in India and China.

Thus, the agricultural method of breeding and raising livestock is called animal husbandry.

Cloning:

• Cloning is the process of producing individuals with identical or virtually identical DNA, either naturally or artificially.
• In nature, many organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction.
• Cloning in biotechnology refers to the process of creating clones of organisms or copies of cells or DNA fragments.

Mixed farming is a type of farming that involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. 

• Such agriculture occurs across Asia and in countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Central Europe, Canada, and Russia.
• Though at first it mainly served domestic consumption, countries such as the United States and Japan now use it for commercial purposes.

Key Points

Mixed farms are moderate in size and usually, the crops associated with them are wheat, barley, rye, oats, maize, fodder, and root crops.

• Fodder crops are an important component of mixed farming.
• Crop rotation and intercropping play an important role in maintaining soil fertility.
• Equal emphasis is laid on crop cultivation and Animal husbandry.
• Animals like cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry provide the main income along with crops.

Hence, we can say that in Mixed farming, the land is used for growing food and fodder crops and also for rearing livestock.

Additional Information

• Subsistence farming: It occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. 
  • Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no surplus.
  • Planting decisions occur principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, and only secondarily toward market prices.
• Intensive farming: It is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area.
  • It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital and labour, and higher crop yields per unit land area.
• Commercial farming: It is the farming method in which plant and livestock production is practised with the intention of selling the products on the market.
  • Subsistence agriculture is practised in a small area only.
  • On the other hand, a large area is necessary to practice commercial agriculture.

Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures.

• In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter.
• Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys.

Key Points

• Transhumance developed on every inhabited continent. Although there are substantial cultural and technological variations, the underlying practices for taking advantage of remote seasonal pastures are similar.
• Transhumance is a "form of pastoralism or nomadism". Nomadic forms of pastoralism are divided into five groups as follows: "pure pastoral nomadism", "semi-nomadic pastoralism", "semi-sedentary pastoralism", "distant-pastures husbandry" and "seasonal transhumance". 
• Generally, only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic, or political change.
• Traditional or fixed transhumance has occurred throughout the inhabited world, particularly Europe and western Asia. It is often important to pastoralist societies, as the dairy products of transhumance flocks and herds (milk, butter, yoghurt, and cheese) may form much of the diet of such populations. 

Hence, we can say that the term transhumance refers to the Seasonal movement of people.

The main occupation of the producers in the primary sector of an economy is Agriculture.

Key Points

• The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, hunting, fishing, and forestry.
• The primary sector of the economy extracts or harvests products from the earth such as raw materials and basic foods.
• Activities associated with primary economic activity include agriculture (both subsistence and commercial), mining, forestry, grazing, and gathering, fishing, and quarrying.
• The three-sector model in economics divides economies into three sectors of activity:
  •  extraction of raw materials (primary),
  • manufacturing (secondary), and
  • service industries that exist to facilitate the transport, distribution, and sale of goods produced in the secondary sector (tertiary).
• The primary activity is involved with the production or extraction of natural resources. It involves the cultivation of crops, fruits, vegetables, raring of livestock all of which are required for a living.