Primary Activities (Overview) Video Lecture | Geography CUET Preparation - Humanities/Arts

hi welcome to Chapter five primary
activities this chapter is about the
primary sector of the economy now let me
start off in a systematic manner what is
an economic activity human activities
which generate income are known as
economic activities any nation's economy
is divided into various sectors like
primary secondary tertiary and
quaternary sectors and the reason we
have done such a division is to identify
the population engaged in various
activities that supports the economy now
why do we need to do that because it's
always better if we measure growth so
that necessary changes development can
be made it's like how supermarkets
constantly track the consumers behavior
their buying habits by doing so they can
predict what customers will buy in the
future when the data is properly used
and interpreted it can let you know how
to sell the products efficiently what
discount and benefit can be added in
order to make the demand meet the supply
in the similar manner government tracks
the economy and records the behavior of
the population engaged in various
activities this way government can see
trends and if necessary make the
required changes and tweaks that can
have a significant effect such as it can
increase employment demand production
and many other things I hope you're
understanding what I'm saying so this
chapter is purely about primary
activities where people are directly
dependent on environment it's like
putting your hands directly into the
earth's resources such as land water
vegetation building materials and
minerals and earning a living from it
that's why you must have seen a lot of
people engaging in activities like
hunting and gathering pastoral
activities fishing forestry agriculture
mining and quarrying these are the
livelihoods and all of these are
provided by nature hence they are
natural so you can easily correlate we
are going to read about some of the
primary activities what are the
importance how they are done and few
pros and cons so the first topic is
hunting and gathering I think you
understand the meaning of the terms
hunting
and gathering if you remember the
stories of early men they were dependent
on animals and plants for food shelter
and clothing so it is not something new
every part of the world is familiar with
this kind of economic activity places
with extreme hot and cold climates then
coastal regions mountainous regions
everywhere hunting and gathering is
carried out by humans in different
manner to satisfy the needs for food
shelter and clothing now gathering is
practiced in high latitudes owns which
include northern Canada northern Eurasia
and southern Chile we are talking about
regions above the temperate zone these
places are very cold and they are ideal
to grow tasty fruits that have high
commercial value we are talking about
apple pear peach plum grape strawberry
blueberry etc all these are commercial
fruits and there is huge demand in the
market and the places at low latitudes
owns such as Amazon basin tropical
Africa northern fringe of Australia and
the interior part of Southeast Asia
these are tropical regions of southern
hemisphere here mainly you will find
evergreen trees bushes and shrubs which
have medicinal qualities they are also
used for beverages drugs cosmetics
fibers fabric etc and after simple
processing the products are sold in the
market so you can understand the
commercial usage of this primary
activity the next topic is pastoralism
so what is the meaning of pastoralism
pastoralism is the branch of agriculture
concerned with the raising of livestock
in simple terms it is animal husbandry
you know the care and use of animals
such as camels goats cattle yarks llamas
and sheep that is kind of funny that
earlier when people killed animal for
food shelter and clothing soon they
realized that it is not sustainable
meaning hunting animal is not at all a
permanent solution to human needs and
then they realized ok why not we
domesticate animals because there is a
benefit on both side humans will get
their needs fulfilled and animal will
get the necessary care it is like a
win-win situation on both side
and that's how pastoralism came into
existence today it is done both to
support individually as well as at
commercial level that is to sell
products in the market now under
pastoralism we have subtopics
and right now we'll read about nomadic
herding let's break down the words and
understand the meaning first nomadic
meaning living the life of a nomad they
are people who move from one place to
another in search of food and shelter
and the meaning of herding is having a
group of animals and then moving in a
group you must have seen on the road
people moving with large group of goats
and cattle
that's called herding so the meaning of
nomadic herding is there are people who
move from one place to another along
with their livestock or animals
now nomads are everywhere in the world
so depending on region variety of
animals are available with these nomads
for example in tropical Africa the
African countries near equator cattle
are the most important lifestock while
in Sahara and Asiatic deserts sheep
goats and camels are ahead in the
mountainous areas of Tibet and Andes yak
and llamas and in the Arctic and
subarctic areas reindeer are the most
important animals nomadic herding is
common in three important regions of the
world I'll show you everything on a map
so that it's easy to remember the first
region is Atlantic shows of North Africa
eastwards across the Arabian Peninsula
into Mongolia and central China the
second region extends over the tundra
region of Eurasia and third region is in
the southern hemisphere there are small
areas in Southwest Africa and on the
islands of Madagascar just to roughly
remember these areas there is this term
called transhumans many times it is
asked in exams it is referred to the
movement of livestock from one grazing
ground to another depending upon the
season for example during summers
mountains are much cooler than plain
areas so they moved to mountains and
during winter plain areas are warmer
than mountains so they move back to
plain areas this is called transhumance
in India there are some tribes who
practice transhumans these tribes are
good jars back our walls godís and
Proteus and the next subtopic of
pastoralism is commercial livestock
rearing whenever the word commercial
comes it means engaging in some sort of
business or commerce where the intention
is to make profit so commercial
livestock rearing is raring animals for
business purpose or making profit out of
it they're very capital-intensive
meaning a lot of money is involved in
setting up infrastructure caring of
animals production etc it is a fully
fledged business model and these are
very common in Western societies you
will see huge ranch is covered in large
areas in fact the food that you eat in
McDonald's KFC
they are mostly supplied by ranches so
what happens is these ranches produce
milk products supply meat vegetables
plants herbs cranes etc studious big
food and beverage companies and we know
these big corporations have huge
turnovers because we all love to eat
their fast-food and that's how the
commercial livestock rearing policy
comes into play and I'm just giving you
one example of food companies there are
many industries in the world like
textile fishing consumer goods they are
all running on the model of commercial
livestock rearing New Zealand Australia
Argentina Uruguay and United States are
important countries where commercial
livestock rearing is practiced now we
are going to read about the next broad
topic agriculture I don't need to tell
you the meaning of it you know what is
the meaning of Agriculture but what I
would like to say is there are different
types of agricultural systems yes you
heard me right there are
well-established systems in agriculture
we are going to read about them in brief
the first one is subsistence agriculture
the meaning of subsistence is
self-sufficiency supporting yourself so
in this type of Agriculture a farmer
grows enough food to support him and his
family now it is further grouped into
two categories primitive subsistence
agriculture and intensive subsistence
agriculture let's understand primitive
subsistence agriculture we know the
meaning of subsistence agriculture
what is left is to understand the
meaning of primitive now primitive means
ancient prehistoric or preserving the
character of an early stage now if you
add all the words together the meaning
of primitive subsistence agriculture is
it is a method in which a farmer uses
traditional ideology to grow food for
him and his family I hope you understood
what I just said that's why you will
find slash-and-burn agriculture falling
in this category slash-and-burn
agriculture is known as shifting
agriculture where the vegetation is
usually cleared by fire and the ashes
add to the fertility of the soil after
repeating it three or four times the
soil loses its fertility and the farmer
shifts to another part and does the same
things all over again
this kind of agriculture is quite famous
in tropical region since vegetation is
usually cleared by fire and vegetation
is more in tropical region you can
remember it this way this type of
agriculture is named as chumming in
northeastern states of India it's named
as milpa in Central America and Mexico
in Indonesia and Malaysia it is called
as Ladon let me show you the places on a
world map that are famous for primitive
subsistence agriculture if you notice
all places are a tropical region the
second category under subsistence
agriculture is intensive subsistence
agriculture again we know the meaning of
subsistence agriculture and the meaning
of intensive is concentrated on a single
subject so if we have to combine all the
words together intensive subsistence
agriculture is a method in which a
farmer concentrates on any one crop at a
time or his land is intensely used up by
one crop at a time and then whatever he
produces it is for his family and his
own consumption going forward again
there are two types of intensive
subsistence agriculture first one is
intensive subsistence agriculture
dominated by wet paddy cultivation and
the second one is intensive subsistence
agriculture dominated by crops other
than paddy basically the crops other
than paddy are wheat soya bean ballet
and sorghum let me just show you what
paddy looks like that is basically rice
with the husk on it
if you remove the husk you will get rice
so in many parts of the world rice is a
staple crop in India it's so common
almost everyone eats rice at least one
time in a day therefore rice falls under
intensive subsistence agriculture one
more thing that we need to understand is
that in intensive subsistence
agriculture farmers work with the help
of family labor since most of the output
is self consumed by the farmer's family
hence there is not much profit involved
so family labor is the only alternative
than having outside labor again due to
lack of profit use of machinery is
limited and most of the agricultural
operations are done by manual labor and
they also rely on natural farm manual
instead of packaged fertilizers so these
are some of the characteristic traits of
intensive subsistence agriculture do
remember them it often comes in the form
of essays or long answers in exam have a
look at the places of intensive
subsistence farming in India most of the
south and north eastern states rely on
rice or paddy and then you have the
Southeast Asian countries and the South
Asian countries there most of the
delicacies contain rice now we are going
to read about next form of agricultural
system known as planet Asian agriculture
it is a form of commercial farming where
crops are grown for profit that's why
you will see some of the important
planet Asian crops like tea coffee cocoa
rubber cotton palm oil sugar cane
bananas and pineapples they have great
demand in the market
now let's understand the characteristic
features of this type of farming to do
this kind of farming you need large
property that's why you'll see the land
areas in Darjeeling for tea plantation
are so massive it will have so many
people working around the clock managing
the land and providing technical support
to the plants and then there will be a
scientific lab sort of a department
which keeps an eye on the plants and
constantly observe its genetic behavior
then you will have a good system of
transportation for supplying the final
product to the market and finally you
will see large number of laborers
plucking leaves so if you see all this
requires huge capital and money it is
all commercial activity hence there is a
lot that goes into it so understand this
characteristic traits now let's see
where all do we find these commercial
client Asian crops
cocoa and coffee is found in West Africa
thanks to the French establishment over
there and you will find large tea
gardens in India and Sri Lanka
this is due to British setup rubber
plantation in Malaysia sugar and banana
plantation in West Indies coconut in
Philippines this is because of Spanish
and American investment and the next
type of agricultural system is extensive
commercial grain cultivation whenever
there is a word called commercial always
remember we are dealing with business
that deals in profit and the word
extensive means large-scale operation so
in this type of Agriculture commercial
crops are grown in large scale we are
talking about corn barley oats and rye
the size of the farm is very large
therefore almost all the operations are
mechanized from cultivation deploying to
harvesting here is a map that shows
places of extensive commercial grain
farming Eurasian steppe ease the
Canadian and American prairies the
pampas of Argentina the wells of South
Africa the Australian downs and the
Canterbury Plains of New Zealand and the
next type of agricultural system is
mixed farming mixed farming is an
agricultural system that comprises
farming along with the raising of
livestock this form of Agriculture is
found in the highly developed parts of
the world example northwestern Europe
eastern North America parts of Eurasia
and the temperate latitude of southern
continents most of the crops that falls
in this category of farming are wheat
barley oats rye maize fodder and root
crops animals like cattle sheep pigs and
poultry provide the main income along
with crops now that you know it has
maintenance for both crops as well as
animals hence it will have high capital
expenditure on machineries building
fertilizers and skilled farmers and
laborers and the next one is steady
farming dairy products are highly
commercial therefore this is a capital
intensive activity you will need huge
amount of investment in animal sheds
storage facilities for fodder feeding
and milling machines then you also need
to invest in cattle breeding health care
and veterinary services so it all adds
to the cost
of dairy farming you will also need a
lot of labour to run a dairy farm and
that adds to cost as well one thing that
you will have to consider is with
advancement in transportation
refrigeration pasteurization and other
preservation processes the duration of
storage of various dairy products have
increased as a result if you can
preserve something then there will be
less wastage and that makes dairy
farming lucrative you can see the places
in this map there are three main regions
one is in northwestern Europe the second
is Canada and the third belt includes
southeastern Australia New Zealand and
Tasmania and the next one is
Mediterranean agriculture when we say
Mediterranean we are talking about
countries on either side of
Mediterranean Sea we are talking about
this region all of these countries here
the agriculture is highly specialized
commercial agriculture this region is an
important supplier of figs apples
apricots avocados peach piers olives
strawberries and many citrus fruits you
see all these fruits have high market
demand and value Mediterranean region is
famous for grape cultivation or
viticulture as you know wines are
produced from high quality grapes and
such wines have very high market value
and you can understand this kind of
activity would be highly commercial so
remember viticulture stands for grape
cultivation we move on to the next topic
market gardening and horticulture
horticulture is referred to as the art
science or business of growing plants
and when we say plants we are talking
about medicinal plants fruits vegetables
nuts seeds herbs sprouts mushrooms these
plants are not big in size hence you
don't need a large piece of land they
are usually located near urban areas
where the standard of living is high
again a very highly commissioned form of
Agriculture if you see this type of
agriculture is both labor and capital
intensive and in fact the use of
irrigation high yielding varieties seeds
fertilizers insecticides greenhouses and
artificial heating in colder regions
increases the cost of production
hence the returns have to be profitable
that's why they're commercial crops you
will find horticulture being practiced
at regions of northwest Europe
northeastern United States of America
and the Mediterranean regions and these
places are highly developed so no wonder
such an agricultural method is common
and the last type of farming is
collective farming this farming was
introduced by the Soviet Union to
improve upon the inefficiency of the
agriculture the farmers have to pull in
all their resources like land livestock
and labour they are allowed to retain
very small plots to grow crops in order
to meet their daily requirements and
when everybody works together the
productivity increases after keeping a
certain amount the farmer will have to
sell it to the state at fixed price this
kind of approach is called a socialist
approach meaning everyone is treated
equally with equal opportunity but this
model soon collapsed and have been
modified because there was no profit
involved so these are all the different
type of agricultural methods practiced
at different parts of the world now we
are going to read about the last topic
of this chapter mining because mining
too is a primary activity the meaning of
mining is the process or industry of
obtaining minerals from a mine it
requires digging drilling blasting and
other types of heavy extraction if you
look at the human history humans have
discovered minerals in many stages in
terms of Copper Age Bronze Age and iron
age therefore mining is not something
new however actual development of mining
began with the Industrial Revolution so
the Industrial Revolution took place
after 1760 from there on the importance
of mining is continuously increasing
let's understand what are the factors
affecting mining activity the first one
is physical factors which includes the
size grade and the mode of occurrence of
the deposits you need to first find out
where the actual mineral deposit is
before mining it is very important and
the second factor is economic factors
such as demand for the mendel technology
available and used capital to develop
infrastructure and the labor and
transport costs to successfully perform
any activity the cost associated with
that has to be taken care of
he cannot just continue mining and pile
up all the mineral deposits without even
thinking about demand since mining is an
pensive activity demand has to be sorted
out well in advance so that there isn't
any major loss now let's understand the
methods of mining so there are two types
of mining surface mining and underground
mining these surface mining also known
as opencast mining is the easiest and
the cheapest way of mining on the other
hand underground mining is expensive the
mineral or lies deep below the surface
and it will require series of drilling
with the help of vertical shafts which
is quite an expensive tool
it requires specially designed lifts
drills haulage vehicles ventilation
system for safety and efficient movement
of people and material this method is
very risky several countries of Africa
and few of South America and Asia have
over 50% of the earnings through mining
and on the other hand developed
countries are moving away from mining
because of high labour cost that's why
most of the developed nations import
minerals from other countries this turns
out to be less expensive for them this
brings us to the end the question/answer
of this chapter is available the link to
that is in the description as well as in
the info card which is there at the top
right corner of this video screen I hope
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