Types of Farming Systems in India

Based primarily on nature of land, climatic characteristics and available irrigational facilities, the farmers in India practice different types of farming.

Subsistence Farming

Majority of farmers in the country practice subsistence farming. It is characterized by small and scattered land holdings and use of primitive tools. As the farmers are poor, they do not use fertilizers and high yielding variety of seeds in their fields to the extent they should do. Facilities like electricity and irrigation are generally not available to them. These result into low productivity. Most of the food production is consumed by the farmers and their families. Where facilities like irrigation and electricity are available, farming has improved. Important cash crops like sugarcane, oilseeds, cotton and jute are grown.

Shifting Agriculture

In this type of agriculture, first of all a piece of forest land is cleared by felling trees and burning of trunks and branches. After the land is cleared, crops are grown for two to three years and then the land is abandoned as the fertility of the soil decreases. The farmers then move to new areas and the process is repeated. Dry paddy, maize, millets and vegetables are the crops commonly grown in this type of farming. The per hectare yield is low. This practice is known by different name in different regions of India like Jhum in Assam, Ponam in Kerala, Podu in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and bewar, masha, penda and bera in various parts of Madhya Pradesh.

Plantation Agriculture

Plantation farming is bush or tree farming. It was introduced by the British in the nineteenth century. It is a single crop farming of rubber, tea, coffee, cocoa, spices, coconut and fruit crops like apples, grapes, oranges, etc. It is capital intensive and demands good managerial ability, technical know-how, sophisticated machinery, fertilizers, irrigation, and transport facilities.

Intensive Farming

In areas where irrigation has been possible, the farmers use fertilizers and pesticides on large scale. They have also brought their land under high yielding variety of seeds. They have mechanized agriculture by introducing machines in various processes of farming. These have led intensive farming where the yield per unit area is high. In some areas, this has led to the development of dairy farming.

Dry Agriculture

This practice is followed in areas where irrigation facilities are lacking. Crops cultivated in these areas can withstand dry conditions. The crops grown generally with the help of irrigation are also grown under dry farming. In such circumstances the per hectare yields are generally lower. Most of the area under dry cultivation entertains only one crop during the year. This is practiced in drier parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh etc.

Mixed and Multiple Agriculture

Mixed farming is referred to cultivation of crops and raising of animals simultaneously. The multiple farming is used to denote the practice of growing two or more crops together. In such case a number of crops having varying maturing periods are sown at the same time. The crop maturing early is generally harvested before the growth of the long maturing crop. This practice is followed is areas having good rainfall or facilities of irrigation.

Crop Rotation

This refers to growing of number of Crops one after the other in a fixed rotation to maintain the fertility of the soil. The rotation of crops may be complete in a year in some of the areas while it may involve more than one year’s time is others. Pulses or any leguminous crop is grown after the cereal crops. Legumes have the ability of fixing nitrogen to the soil. Highly fertilizer intensive crops like sugarcane or tobacco are rotated with cereal crops.

Terrace Cultivation

This type of cultivation is practiced specially in hilly areas. The hill and mountain slopes are cut to form terrace sand the land is used in the same way as in permanent agriculture. Since the availability of flat land is limited terraces are made to provide small patch of level land. Soil erosion is also checked due to terrace formation on hill slops.

Agricultural Terms

• Agroecology: the study of the interrelationships of living organisms with each other and with their environment in an agricultural system.
• Biodynamic: a type of organic farming system. Biodynamic farming takes into consideration both biological cycles and also “dynamic”—metaphysical or spiritual—aspects of the farm, with the intention of achieving balance between physical and non-physical realms.
• Biological control: the practice of using beneficial organisms—such as insect predators or parasites of pest insects, pest disease agents, insect-eating birds and bats—to keep pest populations at a tolerable level.
• Biotechnology: the science of gene modification, in which DNA is transferred from one organism to another, altering the molecular makeup of the recipient and resulting in the expression of new characteristics.
• Catch Crop: a crop grown to hold on to, or catch, excess nutrients still in the soil following an economic crop. Rather than being leached from the soil, the nutrients are taken up by the catch crop and then returned to the soil when the plants decompose.
• Companion Crops: Crops that are planted close to one another to achieve some mutual benefit such as repelling insect pests or attracting beneficial insects, shade, wind protection, support, or nutrient enrichment.
• Conservation Tillage: a production system in which at least 30% of the soil surface is covered by residues from previous crops. Conservation tillage is practiced to reduce erosion and to conserve soil carbon. Surface organic mulches are heavily used in Conservation Tillage systems.
• Conventional Agriculture: an industrialized agricultural system characterized by mechanization, monocultures, and the use of synthetic inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, with an emphasis on maximizing productivity and profitability.
• Cover Crop: a crop grown to prevent soil erosion by covering the soil with living vegetation and roots that hold on to the soil. Cover crops are also grown to help maintain soil organic matter and increase nitrogen availability.
• Crop Rotation: the practice of planting a sequence of different crops and cover crops on a specific field. Crop rotations can be used to help build soil fertility, reduce insect pest pressure, and suppress weeds.
• Farmscaping: the practice of designing and maintaining habitats that attract and support beneficial organisms, used to improve crop pollination and to control pest species.
• Flame-Weeding: the practice of using heat to kill weeds. Typically a flame torch is used to clear weed species in a manner that does not affect the crop species or at a time when the crop species is not present.
• Genetically Modified Organism (GMO): an organism that has been genetically altered through the transfer of DNA from another organism, resulting in the expression of new characteristics in the recipient.
• Green Manure: a cover crop grown to help maintain soil organic matter and increase nitrogen availability. Legumes are often used because they have rhizobial bacteria living in their root nodules that are able to fix nitrogen from the air and add it to the soil.
• Humus: Well-decomposed organic matter which is resistant to further decomposition and which may persist for hundreds of years. Humus holds on to some nutrients, storing them for slow release to plants.
• Intercropping: the practice of planting two or more mutually beneficial crops in close proximity, typically as alternating rows or numbers of rows. Benefits can include insect or weed suppression, structural support, or shade.
• Mulching: the practice of spreading organic materials—such as straw, compost, or wood chips—over otherwise bare soil between and among crop plants. Mulching helps to conserve moisture, suppress weeds, and build soil organic matter.
• Organic Agriculture: referring to a type of agriculture that promotes the use of renewable resources and management of biological cycles to enhance biological diversity, without the use of genetically modified organisms, or synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.
• Permaculture: stands for “permanent agriculture” and it is a land use concept that refers to the design of ecological human habitats and food production systems, with goal of harmonious integration of human dwellings, annual and perennial plants, animals, soil, and water, into stable, productive communities.
• Sustainable Agriculture: referring to an agricultural system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just—a system capable of maintaining productivity indefinitely.
• Tilth: the physical structure of soil as it influences plant growth. A soil with good tilth is porous, allowing water to infiltrate easily, and permitting roots to grow without obstruction.
• Trap Crop: a crop that is planted to lure pest insects away from an economic crop.