Hunting and Gathering
The sustainability of this economic activity relies heavily on its surrounding environment.
Hunters and gatherers subsist on:
- Animals which they hunted.
- The edible plants gathered from forests in the vicinity.
Geographical regions: Tribal belt of Central India and Hilly regions of North East and Eastern India.
- In India, largely tribal groups particularly PVTGs(Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) are engaged in hunting and gathering. E.g. Onges, Jarawas, Shompen of Andaman and Nicobar; Bondas of Odisha, Katkaris of Maharashtra.
Commercial opportunities: In the present era, certain gatherings have shifted towards a market-oriented approach and have become commercial in nature. These gatherings involve the collection of valuable plants, including leaves and medicinal plants. After undergoing a simple processing stage, the products are sold in the market for the production of various items such as beverages, drugs, cosmetics, and fibres.
TRIFED(Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India): The institution is working to provide remunerative prices for the products gathered by the tribal.
Pastoralism
- Domestication for subsistence: Pastoralism involves domesticating animals for the purpose of sustaining human life. Those living in various climates have selectively chosen and domesticated animals native to those regions.
- Status of practice: Depending on geographical factors, and technological development, animal rearing today is
practised either at the subsistence or at the commercial level. - Nomadic herding or pastoral nomadism is a primitive subsistence activity, in which the herders rely on animals for food, clothing, shelter, tools and transport.
- Geographical regions: In mountain regions, such as the Himalayas, Gujjars, Bakarwals, Gaddis and Bhotiyas migrate from plains to the mountains in summer and to the plains from the high-altitude pastures in winter. Such seasonal migration is known as transhumance.
Commercial Livestock Rearing
In rural India, raising animals is regarded as a business related to agriculture. Animal husbandry is a crucial part of Indian agriculture and provides a living for over 55% of rural residents.
Objective: Making livestock useful for humans for a variety of uses, many of which have economic value, is the goal of animal rearing. As a result, it has a great potential to provide revenue and non-farm jobs in rural areas.
Products: Important animals include sheep, cattle, goats and horses. Products such as meat, wool, hides and skin are processed and packed scientifically and exported to different world markets.
Major countries: New Zealand, Australia, and the United States of America are important countries where commercial livestock rearing is practised.
Status in India: According to the 20th Livestock Census, India is
— World’s highest livestock owner at about 535.78 million
— First in the total buffalo population in the world — 109.85 million buffaloes
— Second in the population of goats — 148.88 million goats
— Second largest poultry market in the world
— The second-largest producer of fish and also the second-largest aquaculture nation in the world
— Third in the population of sheep (74.26 million)
— Fifth in the population of ducks and chickens (851.81 million)
— Tenth in camel population in the world — 2.5 lakhs
Agriculture Sector
The Indian agriculture sector has been growing at an average annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent during the last six years. It grew by 3.0 per cent in 2021–22 compared to 3.3 per cent in 2020–21.
In terms of agricultural production, we come in second position.
— Of all the veggies, India is the one that produces the most potatoes, ginger, okra, onions, brinjal, etc.
— In addition, India is the world’s top producer of jute, cashews, papaya, spices, coconut, mango, bananas, and other products.
— The largest cotton exporter in the world is India.
— In India, animal husbandry is a significant component of the agricultural industry. It is responsible for over 32% of the output.
Types of Agriculture
1. Subsistence Agriculture: Subsistence agriculture refers to a type of farming where the crops produced are primarily consumed by the local community or farmers themselves. It can be grouped into two categories —
- Primitive Subsistence Agriculture: Primitive subsistence agriculture or shifting cultivation is widely practised by many tribes in the tropics, especially in Africa, south and Central America and Southeast Asia.
E.g. Jhuming in Northeastern states of India, Milpa in Central America and Mexico and Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia. - Intensive Subsistence Agriculture: Due to small landholding and huge population density around 80% of farmers hold small and marginal lands. Hence they are engaged intensive subsistence agriculture. In this type of agriculture, the yield per unit area is high but per labour productivity is low.
2. Plantation Agriculture: Plantation agriculture was introduced by the Europeans in colonies situated in the tropics. Some of the important
plantation crops are tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, sugarcane, bananas and pineapples.
It is a type of commercial farming where monoculture is practised having strong linkages with industries.
— Geographical areas: They are largely confined to tropical areas. In India, plantation agriculture has developed in hilly areas of the northeast e.g. Tea plantations, Nilgiri, Annamalai, Baba Budan and Cardamom hills etc having plantations of coffee, rubber etc.
— Employment: In Southern India, plantation crops generate employment for 13 lakh people and tea, coffee, and pepper grown here have high demand overseas.
Challenges:
- Monoculture has affected the quality of soil and productivity has declined.
- Inefficient Policies: The sector is suffering from distorted policies and a lack of long-term vision. Government support through budgetary allocation and institutional support like the formation of FPO is a must.
- Lack of mechanisation: High labour costs and lack of scientific interventions cause inefficient cultivation.
- Impact of climate change: There is a need to adapt resilient farming techniques against droughts and floods.
- Lack of value addition: This reduces its commercial potential and fails to compete in the international market.
- Plantation agriculture is leading to deforestation: Large tracts of land must be cleared of their native flora in order to construct plantations, which can result in problems like soil erosion, ecological disruption, and biodiversity loss.
Way Forward:
- Comprehensive and integrated government policy: It is needed to double the farmer’s income (Ashok Dalwai Committee Recommendation).
- Integrating with modern practices: Farm mechanisation, intercropping, value addition, and integrated farming activities must be integrated with traditional plantation farming.
- Sustainable Development: Insurance cover for farmers and climate-resilient practices must be adopted for the sustainable development of the sector.
3. Mixed Farming: This form of agriculture is found in the highly developed parts of the world, e.g. North-western Europe, Eastern
North America, parts of Eurasia and the temperate latitudes of Southern continents.
Mixed farms are moderate in size and usually, the crops associated with them are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, fodder and root crops.
- Components: 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.
- Case study: Farmers in the Hassan district of Karnataka have taken up dairy farming in their coconut farms which have shown that tending to livestock also leads to an increase in revenue from coconut trees.
Advantages:
— Reduces Risk of Failure of Crops
— Enhances Soil Fertility
— Increased Income for Farmers
Disadvantages:
— Spreading Fertilizer to individual crops is difficult.
— Threshing and Harvesting crops separately are not possible.
— Guarding crops from animals is a challenging task.
4. Cooperative Farming: A collective of farmers come together to form a cooperative society. This voluntary pooling of resources allows for more efficient and profitable farming, while individual farms remain intact.
The cooperative initiative helps farmers to procure important farming inputs and sell their products on the most favourable terms. Additionally, the society assists in the processing of quality products at cheaper rates.
