Jagran Public School

Class :8
Sub: Social studies
Major Crops
Take off
• Rubber is a commercial crop.
• Shifting agriculture is also known as slash and burn agriculture.
• Agriculture is one of the oldest occupations of human beings.
Warm up
His productivity will be lower than the farmers with tractors.

Find out
Sikkim and Kerala

Explore
Land gets divided among children after the father as a result the brothers often divide their share
leading to further fragmentation of land.

Work out
A)
1. c 2. b 3. d 4. c 5. d
B)
1. jute 2. Corn 3. Food 4. Latex
C)
1. Australia, Cuba, Indonesia, Brazil
2. China, India, Pakistan, Egypt
3. China, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya
4. India, USA, France, Russia
5. India, Bangladesh, China, Uzbekistan
D)
1. Millets is a collective name given to coarse grains like jowar, bajra and ragi. These are grown
in regions with high temperatures, low rainfall and infertile soils. So they are called dry crops.
2. Tea and coffee are two beverage crops.
3. Cotton crop grows well in well-drained loamy soil, capable of retaining moisture, and black
cotton soil.
4. Tea plants cannot withstand stagnant water. They require deep, well-drained and fertile soil.
Therefore, hill slopes are ideal sites for tea gardens.
5. Plantation crops such as tea, coffee and rubber cannot survive stagnant water. Therefore, all
plantations should be well- drained and fertile. Adding compost adds to the soil fertility.
E)
1. Rice requires a temperature of about 25°C at the time of sowing. About 150 to 200
centimetres of rainfall is ideal for its growth. It requires plenty of water, hence clayey soil is best
suited for growing rice, as it holds stagnant water. The process of growing rice
involves a lot of manual labour, as most of the work is done by hand.
2. Most farms in India are small and farmers practice intensive farming where they grow more
than one crops in a year. In USA farms are huge in size and farmers use all modern methods of
farming. They have very high production and they concentrate on commercial production of single
crop.
3. Tea grows at a temperature of about 25°C, and requires an annual rainfall of about 250 cm,
well distributed throughout the year. Tea cannot withstand stagnant water. Hence, it requires deep,
well-drained, fertile soil. Hill slopes are ideal sites for tea gardens, which are known as tea estates.
Tea picking is a skillful job, which is usually done by women. Coffee grows well in places with an
average temperature of 14°C to 26°C, with rainfall not exceeding 150 cm. Rich porous soils, and even
volcanic soils, are ideal for growing coffee as they are well-drained, with no stagnant water, and
possess a high degree of fertility.
4. Sugarcane is grown at a temperature of 21°C–27°C, and requires an approximate amount of
125 cm of rainfall. It grows well in loamy or alluvial soil, as these are fertile and well-drained. There
should be
adequate supplies of chemical fertilisers and insecticides as sugarcane is a soil-exhausting crop.
5. Rubber is obtained from the milky fluid called latex, obtained from rubber trees. Latex is
collected in small cups, as it trickles down slowly from the cuts made in the bark of a rubber tree.
This juice is later purified, dried, made into rubber sheets and then taken to the factory.

Think
*As they do not ensure their crops, in case of crop failure they face huge loss and cannot take the
burden.

Life skills and values

*I have a huge farm where I grow sugar cane. Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane in the
World. I am happy with my huge production and earning from it.

You Tube link:

https://youtu.be/0kIFodw9hZk