Agriculture: crops, irrigation, livestock and raising production

Last time

Before we start: last time, in Generating electricity, you learned these points. Here they are again on one card. Keep them in mind, because today builds on them.

Feeding the country

Farming employs a large share of Pakistan's workers and provides food, and raw materials such as cotton for industry. It depends on the Indus waters and on two growing seasons. This lesson covers crops, irrigation and its problems, livestock, and how output can be raised.

Two cropping seasons

Kharif crops are sown in spring and early summer and harvested in autumn: rice, cotton and sugarcane. They need heat and plenty of water. Rabi crops are sown in autumn and harvested in spring: wheat is the main one, along with gram and oilseeds. Wheat is the main food crop; cotton is the main cash crop, the raw material for the textile industry.

Types of farming

Subsistence farming grows food mainly for the farmer's family, on small plots, with simple tools. Commercial farming grows cash crops for sale, often on larger farms, with machinery, fertiliser and irrigation. Most of Pakistan's farming is on the irrigated Indus Plain; some is rain-fed, called barani, in the Potwar area.

Irrigation

Pakistan has one of the largest canal irrigation systems in the world, fed by barrages on the Indus and its tributaries. Tubewells pump groundwater, and in some areas karez, underground channels, bring water from hills. Without irrigation, most of the plain is too dry for crops.

Waterlogging and salinity

Water seeping from unlined canals and over-watered fields raises the water table until the soil is waterlogged. As the water evaporates in the heat, it leaves salt on the surface: salinity. Crops will not grow in salty soil. Solutions: lining canals, tubewells to lower the water table, drainage, and salt-tolerant crops. Salinity control schemes were set up to do this.

Why yields are low

Many farmers have small plots, little money, and little education about modern methods. Shortages of water, poor seeds, and high costs of fertiliser and fuel limit output. Poor storage and roads mean much of the crop is wasted before it reaches market.

Increasing production

High-yielding varieties of seed, fertilisers and pesticides, the methods of the Green Revolution, raise output per acre. Mechanisation, such as tractors and harvesters, and better irrigation help farmers grow more. Loans from banks, advice from agricultural officers, and better storage and transport also help.

Two views on modernising

View A: modern methods raise output and incomes, and help feed a growing population. View B: machinery replaces workers, chemicals pollute the soil and water, and poor farmers cannot afford the inputs. Give your judgement, with examples, and consider both views.

Livestock

Livestock includes cattle, buffalo, goats, sheep and poultry. Buffalo are the main source of milk. Buffalo need water for bathing in the heat, plenty of fodder, and shade. Products: milk, meat, hides and skins for leather, and dung for fuel and fertiliser.

Livestock problems

Animals often give low yields of milk, because of poor breeds, fodder and veterinary care. Improvements: better breeds, vaccination, more fodder crops, and dairy farms that collect and chill milk. Livestock gives poor rural families an income and a reserve of wealth.

Mistakes that lose marks

Mistake one: putting wheat in kharif. Wheat is the main rabi crop. Mistake two: explaining salinity without the water-table step. Mistake three: a two-views answer with no judgement or example. The fix: right season, the full chain, and a judgement.

The full-marks tip

The full-marks tip: explain waterlogging and salinity as a chain: seepage, rising water table, evaporation, salt. For two-views questions, give examples from Pakistan and a clear judgement.

On one card

So, on one card: agriculture. Keep it for revision.