PRIMARY ACTIVITIES
WHAT ARE PRIMARY ACTIVITIES?
- Economic activities are categorised into four groups – primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary activities.
- Primary activities refer to utilization of earth's resources directly such as land, water, vegetation, building materials and minerals.
- These include hunting, gathering, pastoral activities, fishing, agriculture, mining and quarrying etc.
WHAT IS GATHERING AND HUNTING?
- These are the oldest economic activities.
- Primitive people survived on animals and the edible plants.
WHAT IS PASTORALISM?
- Domestication of animals in various geographical regions.
- Either at the subsistence or at the commercial level.
WHAT IS COMMERCIAL LIVESTOCK REARING?
- It is organized and capital-intensive.
- It is common in western cultures- Australia, New Zealand, USA.
- Animals reared -cattle, goats, sheep and horses.
- Their products like wool, meat, hides and skin are exported to markets.
- Focus on breeding, genetic improvement, disease control and health care of the animals.
WHAT IS AGRICULTURE?
- It is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock.
WHAT IS SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE?
- When farmers grow food crops to meet their needs in smallholdings.
- It has 2 Types:
- Shifting cultivation or Slash and Burn agriculture- In the north-eastern states of India.
- Intensive subsistence agriculture in densely populated regions of monsoon Asia.
- It is dominated by wet paddy cultivation.
WHAT IS PLANTATION AGRICULTURE?
- It is done on large estates with large capital investment and technical support.
- Eg. Tea, sugarcane, banana, coconut, rubber, cocoa and coffee plantations.
WHAT IS EXTENSIVE COMMERCIAL GRAIN CULTIVATION?
- It is done in the interior parts of semi-arid lands of mid-latitudes.
- Wheat is the principal commercial crop.
- The processes of cultivation are highly mechanised.
WHAT IS MIXED FARMING?
- It is practised in developed parts of the world.
- With heavy capital expenditure.
- The crops grown - wheat, oats, rye, barley, maize, fodder and root crops.
- Fodder crops are an important component of mixed farming.
- Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry provide the main income along with crops.
WHAT IS DAIRY FARMING?
- It is rearing of milch animals.
- Mostly cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats or camels.
- There is no off season during the year.
WHAT IS MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURE?
- Found in the areas around Mediterranean Sea with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers.
- Grapes cultivation is a speciality.
- Olives, Figs, Fruits and Vegetables are grown in winters.
WHAT IS HORTICULTURE?
- Cultivation of crops like fruits, vegetables and flowers, for the urban market.
- Both capital intensive and labour intensive.
- The cultivation of vegetables also known as truck farming.
WHAT IS CO-OPERATIVE FARMING?
- It is done by a group of farmers by pooling in their resources voluntarily.
- Motive of efficient and profitable farming.
- Individual farms remain intact.
- Help farmers to procure inputs at cheaper rates, sell the products at profitably.
WHAT IS COLLECTIVE FARMING?
- Improvise the previous methods of agriculture and increase output.
- The farmers used to pool in their resources like land, labour and livestock.
- They retain only small plots to meet their daily needs.
WHAT IS MINING?
- Extraction of valuable minerals from the earth.
- Like coal, gold, iron ore etc.
- Mining is of two types-
- Surface mining or open-cast mining
- minerals extracted that are close to the surface of earth.
- Eg. sand, gravel, stone, coal, copper, iron and aluminum.
- Underground mining or shaft mining
- minerals that are deep below the surface with lifts, drills, haulage vehicles etc.
- Eg. coal, lead, limestone, and salt.