Complete solutions to every question in the “Exercises” section, and to the in-text questions, of NCERT’s Fundamentals of Human Geography, Chapter 4 (Primary Activities), exactly as the questions are printed in the English edition. Try answering each one yourself first, then check it against the model answer here.
1 Multiple Choice Questions (choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below)
Q. Which one of the following is not a plantation crop?
(a) Coffee
(b) Sugarcane
(c) Wheat
(d) Rubber
Answer: (c) Wheat. The chapter names tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, sugarcane, bananas and pineapples as plantation crops. Wheat belongs instead to extensive commercial grain cultivation and mixed farming.
Q. In which one of the following countries co-operative farming was the most successful experiment?
(a) Russia
(b) Denmark
(c) India
(d) The Netherlands
Answer: (b) Denmark. The chapter states the co-operative movement has been successful in several western European countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Italy, but it has been most successful in Denmark, where practically every farmer is a member of a co-operative.
Q. Growing of flowers is called:
(a) Truck farming
(b) Factory farming
(c) Mixed farming
(d) Floriculture
Answer: (d) Floriculture. Growing flowers is called floriculture. The chapter does not use the word itself, but flower-growing is part of market gardening and horticulture, and its example is the Netherlands, which specialises in flowers, especially tulips, flown to major European cities.
Q. Which one of the following types of cultivation was developed by European colonists?
(a) Kolkoz
(b) Viticulture
(c) Mixed farming
(d) Plantation
Answer: (d) Plantation. The chapter states that Europeans, having colonised many parts of the world, introduced plantation agriculture, a large-scale, profit-oriented production system, in their tropical colonies.
Q. In which one of the following regions is extensive commercial grain cultivation not practised?
(a) American Canadian prairies
(b) European Steppes
(c) Pampas of Argentina
(d) Amazon Basin
Answer: (d) Amazon Basin. The chapter names the Eurasian steppes, the Canadian and American Prairies, the Pampas of Argentina, the Velds of South Africa, the Australian Downs and the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand as the regions best developed for this type of farming. The Amazon Basin appears elsewhere in the chapter, as a low-latitude gathering zone, not as a grain-cultivation region.
Q. In which of the following types of agriculture is the farming of citrus fruit very important?
(a) Market gardening
(b) Plantation agriculture
(c) Mediterranean agriculture
(d) Co-operative farming
Answer: (c) Mediterranean agriculture. The chapter states this region is an important supplier of citrus fruits, alongside its speciality in viticulture (grapes), olives and figs.
Q. Which one type of agriculture amongst the following is also called ‘slash and burn agriculture’?
(a) Extensive subsistence agriculture
(b) Primitive subsistence agriculture
(c) Extensive commercial grain cultivation
(d) Mixed farming
Answer: (b) Primitive subsistence agriculture. The chapter states that in primitive subsistence agriculture (shifting cultivation), the vegetation is cleared by fire and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil, which is why it is also called slash-and-burn agriculture.
Q. Which one of the following does not follow monoculture?
(a) Dairy farming
(b) Mixed farming
(c) Plantation agriculture
(d) Commercial grain farming
Answer: (b) Mixed farming. Dairy farming, plantation agriculture and commercial grain farming are all built around one product or crop. Mixed farming, by contrast, gives equal emphasis to crop cultivation (wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, fodder and root crops) and animal husbandry, so it is not a single-crop (monoculture) system.
2 Answer the following questions in about 30 words
Q. Future of shifting cultivation is bleak. Discuss.
Answer: After 3 to 5 years the soil of a cleared patch loses its fertility and the farmer has to shift to a new patch. Because fertility is being lost in parcel after parcel, the cycle of jhum becomes less and less, so the land gets less time to recover. The patches are very small and are worked with primitive tools such as sticks and hoes, so yields stay low. This is why the future of shifting cultivation is bleak.
Q. Market gardening is practised near urban areas. Why?
Answer: Its vegetables, fruits and flowers are perishable, high-value crops whose only real market is the high-income consumers of nearby cities, and farms need good, quick transport links to that urban market, which is only available close to it.
Q. Large scale dairy farming is the result of the development of transportation and refrigeration.
Answer: Milk and dairy products spoil quickly, so only once transport networks, refrigeration and pasteurisation became widely available could dairy produce reach distant urban markets fresh and be stored safely for longer, which is what made large-scale, specialised dairy farming viable.
3 Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words
Q. Differentiate between Nomadic Herding and Commercial Livestock Rearing.
Answer: Nomadic herding, or pastoral nomadism, is a primitive, subsistence activity: herders rely entirely on their animals for food, clothing, shelter, tools and transport, and move from place to place with their livestock depending on the amount and quality of available pasture and water, though each community keeps to a well-identified traditional territory. Commercial livestock rearing, by contrast, is far more organised and capital intensive, and is essentially associated with western cultures. It is practised on permanent ranches, divided into fenced parcels for rotational grazing, with the number of animals kept according to the pasture’s carrying capacity. It is a specialised activity, usually rearing only one type of animal, such as sheep, cattle, goats or horses, on a scientific basis of breeding, genetic improvement, disease control and health care, and its products, meat, wool, hides and skin, are processed and exported scientifically. New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and the United States are its important countries.
Q. Discuss the important characteristic features of plantation agriculture. Name a few important plantation crops from different countries.
Answer: Plantation agriculture is a large-scale, profit-oriented production system that European colonists introduced in their tropical colonies. Its main features are large estates or plantations, large capital investment, managerial and technical support, scientific methods of cultivation, single-crop specialisation, cheap labour, and a good system of transportation linking the estates to the factories and markets for export. Important plantation crops include tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, sugarcane, bananas and pineapples. Different colonial powers introduced different crops: the French established cocoa and coffee plantations in West Africa; the British set up large tea gardens in India and Sri Lanka, rubber plantations in Malaysia, and sugarcane and banana plantations in the West Indies; the Spanish and Americans invested in coconut and sugarcane plantations in the Philippines; the Dutch once had a monopoly over sugarcane plantations in Indonesia; and some coffee fazendas (large plantations) in Brazil are still managed by Europeans. Today, most plantations are owned by the government or the nationals of the countries concerned.
4 In-text Questions (asked within the chapter)
In-text Q1. Why are the inhabitants of coastal and plain regions engaged in fishing and agriculture respectively? What are the physical and social factors which affect the type of primary activities in different regions?
Answer: Primary activities are directly dependent on the environment, because they use earth’s resources such as land, water, vegetation and minerals. Coastal people have the sea close at hand, so fishing is their natural occupation; plains have flat land, fertile soil and water, so people there take to agriculture. Physical factors that decide the type of primary activity include relief, climate, soil, water, vegetation and the minerals available. Social factors include the level of technology, the capital available, the size of the population and market demand. The chapter itself shows this: agriculture is practised under multiple combinations of physical and socio-economic conditions, which gives rise to different agricultural systems.
In-text Q2. Why has hunting been banned in India?
Answer: Because illegal hunting (poaching) has made many species extinct or endangered. Early hunters used primitive tools of stone, twigs or arrows, so the number of animals killed was limited; modern hunting can kill far more, so it has been banned to protect wildlife.
In-text Q3. The name of the part of the chewing gum after the flavour is gone?
Answer: It is called chicle. It is made from the milky juice of the zapota tree, a product of gathering.
In-text Q4. Find out other areas and the names with which shifting cultivation is done.
Answer: The chapter’s own names are Jhuming in the North-eastern states of India, Milpa in Central America and Mexico, and Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia. In other parts of India it is known by local names too, for example Podu or Penda in Andhra Pradesh, Pama Dabi, Koman or Bringa in Odisha, Bewar or Dahiya in Madhya Pradesh, and Kuruwa in Jharkhand (Class 10 NCERT); in Sri Lanka it is called Chena.
In-text Q5. In extensive commercial grain cultivation there is low yield per acre but high yield per person. Why does this happen?
Answer: The farms are very large, so the entire operation from ploughing to harvesting is mechanised, and combine crews can harvest grain over many hectares in a single day. A few people can therefore handle a huge area, which gives a high yield per person. But the land is farmed extensively, not intensively, in the interior semi-arid lands of the mid-latitudes, so the yield from each acre is low.
In-text Q6. Locate these areas (of extensive commercial grain cultivation) on the world map.
Answer: This is a map-work task. The areas to locate are the Eurasian steppes, the Canadian and American Prairies, the Pampas of Argentina, the Velds of South Africa, the Australian Downs and the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand. All of them lie in the interior semi-arid lands of the mid-latitudes, which is why they are temperate grasslands.
In-text Q7. Have you ever read about mine fires and flooding of coal mines in India?
Answer: Such news reports show exactly the risk the chapter describes for underground (shaft) mining: poisonous gases, fires, floods and caving in lead to fatal accidents. Coal mines of the Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand, for example, are known for underground fires that have burnt for many years. This is why shaft mines need specially designed lifts, drills, haulage vehicles and a ventilation system for the safe movement of people and material.
The chapter also sets a field activity: “Visit a nearby village and observe the cultivation of some crops. Ask the farmers and list the various operations.” This is a personal observation task with no single fixed answer; a student should visit a farm or village nearby, note the crops actually grown there, and connect the farming operations they observe (sowing, weeding, irrigation, harvesting and so on) to the farming systems described in this chapter, such as subsistence or intensive agriculture.
All eight MCQs from this exercise can appear directly as objective questions in the board exam. Read options (v) and (viii) carefully: their four choices share very similar-sounding names, which is exactly where students lose marks by picking the wrong one in a hurry. For both 150-word questions in Section 3, learn the key points, not just the general idea.