Main Sectors of Indian Economy : Agriculture - Questions & Answers
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS1. Which of the following is called the backbone of the Indian economy?
(a) Service sector (b) Industry (c) Trade (d) Agriculture
Answer: (d) Agriculture
2. Agricultural development is crucial for the overall development of the Indian economy because
(a) it ensures rapid growth of income
(b) it is the source of livelihood to a large proportion of country's population
(c) it is the largest contributor to country's GDP
(d) None of the above
Answer: (b) it is the source of livelihood to a large proportion of country's population
3. The problem faced by Indian agriculture is
(a) Shortage of labour (b) Problem of taxation (c) Cooperative farming (d) Dependence on monsoon
Answer: (d) Dependence on monsoon
4. About (c) 43% of the working population in India is engaged in agricultural and allied activities.
(a) 75% (b) 65% (c) 43% (d) 18%
5. About (a) 17% of India's national income is contributed by agriculture.
(a) 17% (b) 33% (c) 50% (d) 10%
6. Indian agriculture is characterised by
(a) land surplus and labour scarce (b) land scarce and labour surplus
(c) land surplus and labour surplus (d) land scarce and labour scarce
Answer: (b) land scarce and labour surplus
7. When did Green Revolution start in India?
(a) 1947 (b) 1966 (c) 1971 (d) 1991
Answer: (b) 1966
8. The level of agricultural productivity is very low as compared to developed country. This is because of
(a) Population on land (b) Heavy dependence on rainfall
(c) Traditional methods of cultivation (d) All of these
Answer: (d) All of these
9. (a) (b) Desertification is the washing away of the earth's top soil due to various human activities.
(a) Deforestation (b) Desertification (c) Both (a) and (b) (d) None of these
10. (c) Both (a) and (b) has posed a big threat to the ecosystem.
(a) Construction of dairy (b) Indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides
(c) Both (a) and (b) (d) None of these
11. Which of the following statements are true?
I. Due to rapid growth of population, stress on natural resources is increasing.
II. Organic farming disturb the ecosystem
Alternatives :
(a) only I (b) only II (c) both I and II (d) none of these
Answer: (a) only I
1. Read the following statements: Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Choose one of the correct alternatives:
Assertion (A): Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy.
Reason (R): Agricultural contribution to country's GDP is the highest among the three major sectors of the economy.
Alternatives :
(a) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
(b) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
(c) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false.
(d) Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true.
Answer: (c) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false.
2. Read the following statements: Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Choose one of the correct alternatives:
Assertion (A): Agriculture has made impressive growth since independence.
Reason (R): It has transformed India from food scarce country to food surplus one.
Alternatives :
(a) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
(b) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
(c) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false.
(d) Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true.
Answer: (a) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
3. Identify the correct pair of statements from the following column I and II:
Column I
(a) Wildlife (Protection) Act
(b) Environment (Presection) Act
(c) Forest (Consevation) Act
Column II
(i) 1966
(ii) 1986
(iii) 1972
Choose the correct alternative:
(a) A-(i) (b) B-(ii) (c) C-(iii)
Answer: (b) B-(ii)
1. Name the three broad sectors of an economy on the basis of occupation.
Answer: The three broad sectors of an economy on the basis of occupation are the Primary Sector, Secondary Sector, and Tertiary Sector.
2. What activities are included in the primary sector? Name them.
Answer: The primary sector includes activities where goods are produced by exploiting natural resources. These activities include agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy, poultry, forestry, and fisheries.
3. What is top soil erosion?
Answer: Top soil erosion is the loss or washing away of the top layer of soil, which is the most fertile part containing rich organic matter and mineral nutrients.
4. What is the importance of agriculture in the industrial development? Give two points.
Answer: (i) Agriculture provides vital raw materials to our leading industries like cotton and jute textile industries, sugar, and vanaspati industries. (ii) It provides a massive market for a number of industrial goods, since prosperous farmers demand more industrial products.
5. Give two causes of low agricultural productivity in India.
Answer: (i) Heavy pressure of population on agriculture, which leads to the sub-division and fragmentation of land holdings. (ii) Lack of adequate irrigation facilities, which leaves a vast majority of agricultural land entirely dependent on uncertain monsoon rains.
6. What is desertification?
Answer: Desertification is the washing away of the earth's top soil due to various factors largely driven by human activities, resulting in land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid areas.
1. What is the role of agriculture in the Indian economy?
OR
"Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy." Explain.
OR
Explain the contribution of Indian agriculture to (i) National income, (ii) Industry, (iii) Food requirements, (iv) Agro-based industries.
OR
What is the importance of agriculture in Indian economic life? Give four reasons.
Answer: Agriculture plays a central role in the Indian economy for the following reasons:
(i) Share in National Income: It makes a massive contribution to the nation's total income, contributing about 18.1 per cent in 2022-23.
(ii) Source of Employment: It remains the primary source of employment, with around 42.1 per cent of the total labour force depending on it for their livelihood.
(iii) Source of Food Supply: It meets the massive food requirements of the growing population and provides fodder for millions of cattle.
(iv) Importance in Industrial Development: It supplies essential raw materials to various major agro-based industries (like cotton textiles, jute, and sugar) and also creates a wider market for industrial products when farmers are prosperous.
2. Mention the trends in agricultural productivity in recent years.
Answer: In recent years, agricultural productivity in India has seen substantial growth. The average yield per hectare for all foodgrains has increased significantly due to better farming methods. For instance, the yield of foodgrains rose from 520 kg per hectare in 1950-51 to 2419 kg per hectare in 2021-22. Crop-specific yields also saw remarkable increases, such as wheat jumping from 660 kg to 3507 kg per hectare. This impressive trend has successfully converted India from a food-scarce country into a net exporter and food-surplus nation.
3. Describe five important causes of low agricultural productivity in India.
OR
Why is agricultural productivity low in India?
Answer: The five important causes of low agricultural productivity in India are:
(i) Heavy Pressure of Population: Too many people depend on agriculture, which shrinks per capita cultivated land and causes sub-division of holdings.
(ii) Uneconomic Size of Holdings: A vast majority of farms are extremely small (less than 2 hectares) and fragmented, making the use of modern machinery and scientific cultivation impossible.
(iii) Old Methods of Production: Many Indian farmers still rely on outdated and obsolete tools like the wooden plough instead of modern implements.
(iv) Lack of Irrigation Facilities: With limited irrigation infrastructure (around 40% of cultivated land), Indian agriculture heavily depends on unpredictable monsoon rainfall.
(v) Lack of Good Seeds and Fertilizers: Improved, high-yielding variety seeds and proper chemical fertilizers are either unavailable or too expensive for many poor farmers to afford.
4. Explain how agricultural practices have disturbed the ecosystem.
Answer: Agricultural practices have seriously disturbed the natural ecosystem in the following ways:
(i) Desertification: Cultivating crops in drought-prone areas and reducing necessary fallow periods lead to severe land degradation.
(ii) Over-cultivation: This completely exhausts the soil by rapidly using up essential mineral nutrients and organic matter needed for growth.
(iii) Overgrazing: Meeting the needs of a growing cattle population removes the critical vegetation cover that protects topsoil from erosion.
(iv) Deforestation: Cutting down trees to make way for new croplands heavily damages the ecosystem, while poorly drained irrigation turns the soil salty.
(v) Indiscriminate Use of Fertilizers and Pesticides: The over-application of synthetic chemicals contaminates surface and ground water, harms useful soil microbes, and disturbs the entire ecosystem of local water bodies.
5. What is deforestation? Mention the main causes behind deforestation.
Answer: Deforestation refers to the extensive destruction or removal of trees and forest cover from an area of land. The main causes behind deforestation are:
(i) The increasing demand to clear land for agricultural expansion and human settlements due to a growing population.
(ii) The construction of large dams and massive hydroelectric projects, which drown and destroy thousands of hectares of rich forest habitat.
(iii) Mining activities, which require the complete removal of plant cover and topsoil across vast land areas.
6. Explain why changes in land use have taken place.
Answer: Changes in land use have primarily taken place because the human population is growing rapidly and the per capita consumption of resources is increasing. As a result, the existing ecosystem is constantly modified or destroyed to fulfill new needs. This leads to changing natural landscapes into functional human spaces, such as converting dense forests into agricultural fields for more food, expanding human settlements to accommodate people, or clearing large natural environments for large-scale mining operations and dams.
1. Discuss the importance of agriculture in the Indian Economy.
Ans. Importance of Agriculture
(i) Agriculture is a source of livelihood for million of farmers.
(ii) It supplies raw materials to various agro-based industries like sugar, jute and cotton textiles.
(iii) Agricultural commodities like tea, tobacco, spices, dry fruit, oilseeds, etc., have been the major commodities of Indian exports.
2. Mention one natural problem faced by the Indian agriculture.
Ans. Agricultural output largely depends on rainfall and other natural factors like floods, drought, storms, etc.
3. State one technical problem faced by Indian agriculture.
Ans. A majority of Indian farmers use obsolete techniques of production which adversely affect the level of productivity.
4. 'Indian agriculture is a gamble of monsoon.' Explain.
Ans.
• Due to inadequate irrigation facilities, Indian agriculture mainly depends on rainfall.
• But the rains are grossly inadequate, highly irregular, and very unevenly distributed among different regions.
• If rains are good, crops are good; but if rains are not good, there a substantial loss of output.
• That is why, Indian agriculture is called a gamble of monsoon.
5. Explain three causes of low agriculture productivity in India.
Ans.
(i) Majority of farmers still use old and outdated techniques of production.
(ii) The average size of land holdings is uneconomic. Nearly three-fourths of the total land holdings are below 2 hectares of land.
(iii) Irrigation facilities are lacking. About 60 per cent of the gross cropped area still depends on rains.
6. What is dam?
Ans. Dams are huge structures which are constructed across a river to control its natural flow to store water for generating hydroelectricity.
7. What is ecosystem?
Ans. Ecosystem is a group of living and non-living things which are interdependent and are found in a particular type of environment.
8. What is soil erosion?
Ans. Loss of top soil (which is fertile) is called soil erosion.
9. What is soil degradation?
Ans. Soil degradation refers to decline in the quality of the soil due to natural as well as man-made factors.
10. Mention the causes of soil erosion.
Ans. The main causes of soil erosion are
(i) overgrazing (ii) rains and winds
(iii) water logging (iv) spread of desert
11. What is desertification?
Ans. Desertification is the washing away of earth's top soil due to various factors.
12. What is meant by abiotic components of ecosystem?
Ans. Abiotic component of ecosystem refers to non-living, basic inorganic elements and compounds including soil, water, forests, and rocks.
13. What are biotic components of ecosystem?
Ans. Biotic component of ecosystem refers to living elements like plants and animals.
14. What is terrestrial ecosystem?
Ans. The terrestrial ecosystem consists of : (i) Forest ecosystem, (ii) Grassland ecosystem and (iii) Desert ecosystem.
15. Explain aquatic ecosystems.
Ans. Aquatic ecosystem is mainly of two types, i.e., marine and fresh water. Marine ecosystem deals with ocean which covers about 64.5 per cent of earth's surface. On the contrary, fresh water ecosystem consists of ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, etc.
16. What is artificial ecosystem?
Ans. Artificial ecosystem is man-made like fishery, tanks, dams, crop lands, etc.
17. Explain why changes in land use have taken place? Give two examples.
Ans. Land use pattern means the use of land for different purposes. As human population is growing and per capita consumption of resources is increasing, the ecosystem is constantly being changed and destroyed. As a result, changes in land use took place.
Examples :
(i) Use of more land for agriculture and human settlement has led to deforestation.
(ii) Mining activities require removal of plants.
18. Explain how agricultural practices have disturbed the ecosystem.
Ans.
(i) Due to various man-made activities including cropping agriculture, soil fertility gets damaged.
(ii) Clearing of forest areas for agricultural and human settlement purposes and firewood consumption, land gets degraded.
(iii) Overgrazing is another reason behind degradation of land.
(iv) Excess use of fertilizers changes the chemistry of soil and kills useful microbes.
(v) Excess use of groundwater for agriculture lowers water table.
19. What is meant by alternate cropping?
Ans. Any non-traditional crop that can be grown in an area to diversify crop rotations (and thus increase soil fertility and productivity) and increase income.
20. What is the difference between conventional farming and organic farming?
Ans. Conventional farming relies on the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically modified crops, while organic farming focuses on natural processes and methods to promote soil health and crop growth.