Human Activities Test - 3

The correct answer is Tea.

Key Points

• Plantation Agriculture
  • Plantation Agriculture is a term used to describe a form of agriculture where the output is sold for commercial purposes, not for personal consumption.
  • It usually involves a large area growing a singular crop over a long duration.
  • This type of agriculture is mainly found in tropical and subtropical areas of the world.
  • Plantation Agriculture requires a large amount of labour and capital.
  • The major crops grown during plantation agriculture are Tea, Coffee, Sugarcane, Cashew, Banana, etc.

Activities that generate income are termed economic activities. On the basis of economic activities, the Indian economy can be divided into 3 major sectors that are the primary sector, the secondary sector, and the tertiary sector.

Key Points

Primary sector: 

• Primary activities are directly dependent on the environment as these refer to the utilization of the earth’s resources.
• It, thus includes hunting and gathering, pastoral activities, fishing, apiculture, etc.

Secondary sector: 

• Secondary activities add value to natural resources by transforming raw materials into valuable products. 
• Therefore, they are concerned with manufacturing, processing, and construction industries. For eg: Shoe factory.

Tertiary sector: 

• Tertiary activities include both production and exchange.
• The production involves the ‘provision’ of services that are consumed.
• The exchange involves trade, transport, and communication facilities that are used to overcome distance. For eg: Consultancy.

Dairy comes under the primary sector. But, selling, trade and transport, providing services, etc are tertiary activities. So, selling dairy products is a tertiary activity.

The correct answer is Primitive subsistence agriculture.

Important Points

Shifting cultivation and nomadic herding are two types of primitive subsistence farming.

• Both types of farming are done temporarily. Indigenous communities prefer to carry out this type of farming system.
• Shifting cultivation is fixed to a limited area and they come back to the same area after a fixed time(after the fertility of soil is renewed)
• Nomadic herding includes a group of people along with animals who travel to different places for cultivation.

Additional Information

• Nomads live in arid and semiarid parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, and in the tundra regions of Asia and Europe.
• In Africa, nomads herd cattle, goats, sheep, and camels. In the tundra, they usually herd domesticated reindeer.
• Other animals managed by nomadic herders include horses, musk-oxen, and yaks.
• Subsistence farming, extensive farming and arable farming are examples of Shifting agriculture.

​

Mediterranean agriculture:

• Mediterranean agriculture is highly specialised commercial agriculture.
• It is practised in the countries on either side of the Mediterranean sea in Europe and in North Africa.
• From Tunisia to the Atlantic coast, southern California, central Chile, southwestern parts of South Africa and south and southwestern parts of Australia.
• This region is an important supplier of citrus fruits.
• Viticulture or grape cultivation is a speciality of the Mediterranean region.
• Best quality wines in the world with distinctive flavours are produced from high-quality grapes in various countries of this region.
• The inferior grapes are dried into raisins and currants.
• This region also produces olives and figs.
• The advantage of Mediterranean agriculture is that more valuable crops such as fruits and vegetables are grown in winters when there is a great demand in the European and North American markets.

Thus, in Mediterranean agriculture type of agriculture, the farming of citrus fruit is very important.

Market gardening:

• Market gardening is associated with Horticulture which specialises in the cultivation of high-value crops such as fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc. for local markets.
• The market garden is a small plot of land (1 to 5 acres) which is run as a business to make a profit.

Plantation agriculture:

• Plantations are a type of commercial farming where a single crop of tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana or cotton are grown.
• A large amount of labour and capital are required.
• The produce may be processed on the farm itself or in nearby factories.
• The development of a transport network is thus essential for such farming.

Cooperative agriculture:

• Cooperative farming means that each farmer will remain the owner of the land but farming is done together.
• It means that farming runs in cooperation with each other.
• That means purchasing of farm materials and using machines etc. are done collectively and profit is distributed among all the farmers who are the members depending on the ratio of land owned by them.
• It improves the quality of products and services and reduces the risk for the farmers.
• It has been very successful in Denmark so there it is practiced on a large scale.

The correct answer is Russia.

Key Points

• The Kolkhoz collective farming was introduced in the erstwhile Soviet Union to improve upon the inefficiency of the previous methods of agriculture and to boost agricultural production for self-sufficiency.
• ​The farmers pool in all their resources like land, livestock, and labor. However, they are allowed to retain very small plots to grow crops in order to meet their daily requirements.

Additional Information 

• Market gardening is associated with Horticulture which specialises in the cultivation of high-value crops such as fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc. for local markets.
• The market garden is a small plot of land (1 to 5 acres) which is run as a business to make a profit.

The correct answer is Primitive subsistence agriculture.

Key Points

• In primitive subsistence agriculture or shifting, cultivation vegetation is usually cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil.
  • Thus, also called slash and burn agriculture.
• The cultivated patches are very small and cultivation is done with very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes.
• After some time (3 to 5 years) the soil loses its fertility and the farmer shifts to other parts and clears another patch of the forest for cultivation.
• The farmer may return to the earlier patch after some time.
• It is prevalent in the tropical region in different names, e.g.-
  • Jhuming in Northeastern states of India,
  • Milpa in Central America and Mexico 
  • Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia.​

Important Points

The correct answer is Open-cast mining.

• Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an orebody.
• Mining techniques can be divided into two common excavation types: surface mining and sub-surface (underground) mining. 

Important Points

1. Minerals that lie at shallow depths are taken out by removing the surface layer; this is known as open-cast mining. 
2. Opencast mining operations involve the removal of huge quantities of overburden, dumping, and backfilling of the excavated area.
3. These overburdened deposits of waste material containing low-grade ores are represented as mine spoil dumps.

Additional Information

1. Deep bores, called shafts, have to be made to reach mineral deposits that lie at great depths. This is called shaft mining.
2. Quarrying is the process of removing rock, sand, gravel or other minerals from the ground to use them to produce materials for construction or other uses.

Hence, Minerals that lie at shallow depths are taken out by removing the surface layers is called Open-caste Mining.

​

Mediterranean agriculture:

• Mediterranean agriculture is highly specialised commercial agriculture.
• It is practised in the countries on either side of the Mediterranean sea in Europe and in North Africa.
• From Tunisia to the Atlantic coast, southern California, central Chile, southwestern parts of South Africa and south and southwestern parts of Australia.
• This region is an important supplier of citrus fruits.
• Viticulture or grape cultivation is a speciality of the Mediterranean region.
• Best quality wines in the world with distinctive flavours are produced from high-quality grapes in various countries of this region.
• The inferior grapes are dried into raisins and currants.
• This region also produces olives and figs.
• The advantage of Mediterranean agriculture is that more valuable crops such as fruits and vegetables are grown in winters when there is a great demand in the European and North American market.

Thus, Mediterranean agriculture is highly specialized in commercial viticulture.

The Correct Answer is Nomadic herding. 

Important Points

• Nomadic herding is the practice of keeping and grazing animals on natural pastures.
• It is common in the arid and semi-arid regions such as certain parts of Saudi Arabia, northern Africa, and northern parts of Eurasia.
• The practice resembles pastoral farming.
• The type of animals herded varies from one region to another.
• They include sheep, cattle, camel, goats, donkeys, and horses.