NCERT Solution for Class 12 Geography Book II Chapter 3 Land Resources and Agriculture
Question.1. Choose the right answers of the following from the given options.
(i) Which one of the following is NOT a land-use category?
(a) Fallow land
(b) Marginal land
(c) Net Area Sown
(d) Culturable Wasteland
Answer
(b) Marginal Land
(ii) What one of the following is the main reason due to which share of forest has shown an increase in the last forty years?
(a) Extensive and efficient efforts of afforestation
(b) Increase in community forest land
(c) Increase in notified area allocated for forest growth
(d) Better peoples’ participation in managing forest area.
Answer
(c) Increase in notified area allocated for forest growth
(iii) Which one of the following is the main form of degradation in irrigated areas?
(a) Gully erosion
(b) Wind erosion
(c) Salinisation of soils
(d) Siltation of land
Answer
(c) Salinisation of soils
(iv) Which one of the following crops is not cultivated under dryland farming?
(a) Ragi
(b) Jowar
(c) Groundnut
(d) Sugarcane
Answer
(d) Sugarcane
(v) In which of the following group of countries of the world, HYVs of wheat and rice were developed?
(a) Japan and Australia
(b) U.S.A. and Japan
(c) Mexico and Philippines
(d) Mexico and Singapore
Answer
(c) Mexico and Philippines
Question.2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.
(i) Differentiate between barren and wasteland and culturable wasteland.
Answer.
Barren and Wasteland | Culturable Wasteland |
Barren and wasteland refer to that land that cannot be brought under cultivation practices even with the use of present technology. | Cultural wasteland is the land which is left fallow for more than five years. |
It is the land that is depleted due to land degradation or other natural factors. | It can be brought under cultivation with the present standard technologies. |
(ii) How would you distinguish between net sown area and gross cropped area?
Answer.
Net sown area | Gross cropped area |
The physical extent of land in which crops are sown and harvested in a year is known as the net sown area. This is the actually cultivated area. | The total area cultivated once, twice, or multiple times in a year is the gross cropped area. |
Does not take into account multiple cropping. | Multiple cropping is taken into account. |
(iii) Why is the strategy of increasing cropping intensity important in a country like India?
Answer. The strategy of increasing crop intensity aims at increasing the productivity of a piece of land by increasing the number of times it is cultivated in a year. It aims at increasing the productivity of agriculture by increasing the productivity of the already cultivated areas. It is important for countries like India where there is a dearth of land so it is difficult to bring new pieces of land under cultivation to meet the ever-increasing demand of the rising population.
(iv) How do you measure total cultivable land?
Answer. Total cultivable land is the entire land that can be cultivated either in the current state or after reclaiming it through the available technologies. It is a sum of total culturable wasteland, Fallow other than current fallow, current fallow, and net sown area.
(v) What is the difference between dryland and wetland farming?
Answer.
Dryland farming | Wetland farming |
In India, dryland farming is largely confined to regions having annual rainfall less than 75 cm. | In wetland farming, the rainfall is more than the total moisture requirement of the soil during the rainy season. |
These areas face problems of drought. | Problems of flash floods and soil erosion are faced. |
Practiced in areas like Northern Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. | Practiced in areas like West Bengal and Bihar. |
Hardy and drought-resistant crops like jowar, bajra, and gram are grown. | Water-intensive crops like rice, sugarcane, and jute are grown. |
Question.3. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.
(i) What are the different types of environmental problems of land resources in India?
Answer. Different types of environmental problems of land resources in India are:
- Dependence on Erratic Monsoon: Irrigation covers only about 33% of the cultivated area in India. The crop production in the rest of the cultivated land directly depends on rain. Poor monsoon adversely affects the supply of canal water for irrigation. Rainfall in drought-prone areas is too meager and highly unreliable. Even the areas receiving high annual rainfall experience considerable fluctuations. This makes them vulnerable to both droughts and floods.
- Degradation of Cultivable Land: One of the serious problems that arise out of faulty strategy of irrigation and agricultural development is the degradation of land resources. It may lead to depletion of soil fertility. In irrigated areas, a large tract of agricultural land has lost its fertility due to alkalisation and salinisation of soils and waterlogging. Excessive use of chemicals such as insecticides and pesticides has led to their concentration in toxic amounts in the soil profile. Leguminous crops have been displaced from the cropping pattern in the irrigated areas and the duration of fallow has substantially reduced owing to multiple cropping. This has obliterated the process of natural fertilization such as nitrogen fixation. Rainfed areas in humid and semi-arid tropics also experience degradation of several types like soil erosion which are often induced by human activities.
(ii) What are the important strategies for agricultural development followed in the post-independence period in India?
Answer. Indian agricultural economy was largely subsistence in nature before Independence. During partition about one-third of the irrigated land in undivided India went to Pakistan. After Independence, the immediate goal of the Government was to increase foodgrains production by:
- switching over from cash crops to food crops.
- intensification of cropping over already cultivated land.
- increasing cultivated area by bringing cultivable and fallow land under plough.
Later, the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and the Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) were launched. But two consecutive droughts during mid-1960s resulted in food crisis in the country. New seed varieties of wheat (Mexico) and rice (Philippines) known as high yielding varieties (HYVs) were available for cultivation by mid-1960s. India took advantage of this and introduced package technology comprising HYVs, along with chemical fertilisers in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, leading to fast agricultural growth. This spurt of agricultural growth came to be known as ‘Green Revolution’. This also gave fillip to the development of a large number of agroinputs, agro-processing industries and smallscale industries. This strategy of agricultural development made the country self-reliant in foodgrain production. The Planning Commission of India focused its attention on the problems of agriculture in rainfed areas in the 1980s. It initiated agro-climatic planning in 1988 to induce regionally balanced agricultural development in the country. It also emphasized the need for diversification of agriculture and harnessing of resources for the development of dairy farming, poultry, horticulture, livestock rearing and aquaculture.
