Types of Agriculture in India

There are different types of farming activities performed in India which are as follows:

Subsistence Farming:

• Subsistence farming is a type of farming in which nearly all the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and farmer’s family leaving little.
• Subsistence farms usually consist of no more than a few acres, and farm technology tends to be primitive and of low yield.

Mixed farming:

• Mixed farming is an agricultural system in which a farmer conducts different agricultural practice together, such as cash crops and livestock
• The aim is to increase income through different sources and to complement land and labour demands across the year.

Shifting cultivation:

• Shifting cultivation means migratory shifting agriculture.
•  Under this system, a plot of land is cultivated for a few years and then, when the crop yield declines because of soil exhaustion and the effects of pests and weeds, is deserted for another area.
• Here the ground is again cleared by slash-and-burn methods, and the procedure is repeated.
• Shifting cultivation is predominant in the forest areas of Assam (Known as jhum), Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunchal Predesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh (Podu).

Extensive Farming:

• This is a system of farming in which the farmer uses the limited amount of labour and capital on relatively large area.
• This type of agriculture is practiced in countries where population size is small and land is enough.
• Per acre yield is low but the overall production is in surplus due to less population.
• Here machines and technology is used in farming.

Intensive Farming:

• This is a system of farming in which the cultivator uses larger amount of labour and capital on a relatively small area.
• This type of farming is performed in countries where the population to land ratio is high i.e. population is big and land is small.
• Annually two or three types of crops are grown over the land.
• Manual labour is used.

Plantation Agriculture

• In this type of agriculture cash crops are mainly cultivated.
• A single crop like rubber, sugarcane, coffee, tea is grown.
• These crops are major items of  export.