Imagine spending your summer vacation at your uncle’s house, where he’s a farmer.
One day, you see a bunch of interesting tools like a khurpi (a small hand plough), a sickle (for cutting crops), a shovel, and a plough in the field. These tools help farmers grow food to feed many people.
Food gives us energy to do everything we need, like running, thinking, and even sleeping. Plants make their own food, but animals, including us, need to eat plants or other animals to get our food.
To provide food to everyone , farmers need to produce a lot of food, manage their crops well, and distribute them effectively.
Sickle Khurpi Plough
How Did Farming Start?
Long ago, around 10,000 years before the present day, people didn't farm. They roamed around, searching for food and shelter. They ate raw fruits, vegetables, and hunted animals. But over time, they discovered how to grow plants. This new way of getting food is known as agriculture.
What is a Crop
Plants of the same kind that are grown and cultivated as a source of food in a large cultivable land is called a crop.
For example, if you see a field full of wheat plants, that's a wheat crop.
Crops can be different types like cereals (e.g., wheat, rice), vegetables (e.g., carrots, beans), and fruits (e.g., apples, bananas).
Wheat Crop
Agricultural Practices
Different types of crops like cereals, vegetables and fruits etc., can be classified on the basis of the season in which they grow.
Crops Grown in a Field
India is a vast country. Here climatic conditions like temperature, humidity and rainfall vary from one region to another. Hence, a rich variety of crops can be grown in different parts of India. So, we are lucky to be here.
Despite this diversity, two broad cropping patterns can be identified:
1. Kharif Crops
Plants that are planted during the rainy season are called Kharif crops.
The rainy season in India is generally from June to September. The rain helps these crops grow strong and healthy. It's like giving them a big, refreshing drink that they love! Examples: Paddy, Maize, Soybean, Groundnut, Cotton, etc.
2. Rabi Crops
Crops that are grown in the winter season are called rabi crops.
Their time period is generally from October to March. The cooler temperatures and gentle sunlight create just the right conditions for these crops to grow. Examples: Wheat, Gram, Pea, Mustard and Linseed
Difference Between Kharif and Rabi Crops
Question for Chapter Notes: Crop Production and Management
Try yourself:Which of the following is not an example of kharif crop?
Explanation
Wheat, because wheat is a rabi crop, not a kharif crop.
Kharif crops are the crops which are cultivated from the month of June to september.
These include crops like Rice, Bajra, Soyabean, Maize, Tur, Urad, Cotton and Sugarcane.
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Basic Practices of Crop Production
The several activities undertaken by the farmers for the cultivation of crops over a period of time are referred to as agricultural practices.
1. Preparation of Soil
The first step before growing a crop is preparing the soil.
One of the most important tasks in agriculture is to turn the soil and loosen it.
Think of soil as a cozy blanket for plants. When soil is loose, it’s like giving plants a comfy bed where their roots can stretch out and breathe easily The top layer of soil supports plant growth and is rich in nutrients
Here’s why loosening the soil is so important:
Roots Need Air: Just like we need air to breathe, plant roots need air too. Loose soil allows roots to get the oxygen they need even when they dig deep.
Friends of the Farmer: Loosened soil invites helpful earthworms and tiny microbes. These little buddies help mix the soil and add valuable nutrients, making the soil even better for growing
Ploughing of Soil
Levelling of soil
The process of loosening and turning the soil is called tilling or ploughing. This is done by using a plough that is made of wood or iron.
If the soil is very dry, it may need watering before ploughing. The ploughed field may have big pieces of soil called crumbs.
It is necessary to break these crumbs with a plank. The field is levelled by a leveller for sowing as well as for irrigation purposes.
Agricultural Implements
Plough
A plough is a device that is used by farmers for different purposes such as adding fertilizers, tilling, and loosening the soil.
A Traditional Wooden Plough
Ancient and Powerful: The plough has a long history of helping farmers. It turns the soil, mixes in fertilizers, removes pesky weeds, and gets the soil ready for planting.
How It Looks: Traditional ploughs are made of wood and are often pulled by a pair of bulls or other animals like horses or camels. It features a strong, triangular iron piece called the ploughshare, which cuts into the soil.
The Parts: The main part is a long wooden log called the plough shaft. There’s a handle on one end, and the other end connects to a beam that rests on the animals' necks. With one pair of bulls and a farmer, the plough is easy to operate! While wooden ploughs are traditional, many farmers now use iron ploughs, which are more durable and efficient.
Hoe
The hoe is like a gardener’s multi-tool. It’s simple but super useful:
What It Does: The hoe is perfect for removing weeds and loosening the soil to make it ready for planting.
Design: It has a long handle made of wood or iron, and at one end, there’s a strong, flat iron plate that’s bent to help dig and chop the soil.
Cultivator
A cultivator is attached to the tractor and helps in loosening soil.
Cultivators are used instead of ploughs since they are faster.
Question for Chapter Notes: Crop Production and Management
Try yourself:The process of loosening and turning of the soil is called
Explanation
The process of loosening and turning of the soil is called tilling or ploughing.
This is done by using a plough.
Ploughs are made of wood or iron. If the soil is very dry, it may need watering before ploughing.
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2. Sowing
Sowing is the most important part of crop production. Before sowing, good-quality seeds are selected. These are clean and healthy seeds of a good variety.
Farmers prefer to use seeds that give a high yield.
Seed Test
Using water to test seeds is a smart way to separate good seeds from damaged ones. Healthy seeds sink, while damaged seeds float. This helps farmers ensure that only the best seeds are planted.
Tools for Sowing
Before sowing, one of the important tasks is to know about the tools used for sowing seeds:
(a) Traditional Tool: It is the tool-shaped liked funnel used traditionally for sowing seeds. The seeds are filled into the funnel, passed down through two or three pipes having sharp ends. These ends pierce into the soil and place seeds there.
Traditional Tool
b) Seed Drill: Nowadays, the seed drill is used for sowing with the help of tractors. With the help of this tool sows the seeds uniformly at proper distances and depths. It ensures that seeds get covered by the soil after sowing and prevents damage caused by birds. It saves time and labour.
Seed Drill
While sowing seeds, it is essential to make sure that: (a) Seeds are healthy and of high quality. (b) They are planted at the correct distance from each other so that they can get proper light, water, and nutrients from the soil. (c) They must be sown deep enough to protect them from animals and birds (which might eat them) and wind (which might blow them away) but not so deep that they may not get enough air to germinate.
3. Adding Manure and Fertilizers
Think of your garden as a living being that needs regular nourishment to grow strong. Farmers ensure their soil gets the right nutrients to keep it healthy and productive.
The materials added to the soil as nutrients to promote the healthy growth of plants are known as manure and fertilizers.
Why Soil Needs Extra Care
Soil is like a kitchen with essential ingredients for growing plants. If farmers keep using the same kitchen to cook the same dishes without adding new ingredients or l restocking it , the kitchen will eventually run out of key supplies. It’s like making the same recipe over and over without buying more ingredients.
The Solution: To keep the soil full of goodness, farmers use three methods for replenishing the soil with nutrients :
Adding Manure to soil :
What It Is: Manure is made from decomposed plant and animal waste. It’s like a natural, homemade fertilizer.
How It Helps: Manure improves soil texture and helps it hold water better. It replenishes the soil with essential nutrients.
How It’s Made: Farmers collect plant and animal waste, let it decompose in pits, and use it to enrich the soil. VermiCompost: It is a type of manure that is made using earthworms.
Adding Fertilizers to soil :
What They Are: Fertilizers are chemical substances rich in specific nutrients. They are produced in factories and include types like urea, ammonium sulfate, and NPK (which stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium).
How They Help: Fertilizers boost the soil with concentrated nutrients, leading to better crop yields for plants like wheat, paddy, and maize.
Caution: Overusing fertilizers can harm the soil and cause water pollution.
Crop Rotation:
What It Is: Growing different types of crops in the same field over different seasons. For example, growing legumes one season and wheat the next.
How It Helps: This practice restores soil nutrients, especially nitrogen. Leguminous plants, like beans, work with special bacteria called Rhizobium in their roots to fix nitrogen from the air into the soil.
Organic Manure
Vermi-Compost
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Pros and Cons of using Fertilizers
Organic Manure is better than Fertilizers because:
It adds humus to the soil and increases its water holding capacity.
Improves soil texture.
Makes soil porous which makes the exchange of gases easier.
Increases the number of friendly microbes.
Table: Difference between Manure and Fertilizers:
4. Irrigation
Water is important for the proper growth and development of plants.
Water is essential because the germination of seeds does not take place under dry conditions. Nutrients dissolved in the water get transported to each part of the plant.
Water also protects the crop from both frost and hot air currents. The supply of water to crops at different intervals is called irrigation.
It’s not a good idea to depend on rain for water as it is not fully reliable. A proper irrigation system will ensure timely and adequate water for crops. This will lead to more yield.
Question for Chapter Notes: Crop Production and Management
Try yourself:What is the disadvantage of using Fertilisers?
Explanation
Fertilizers are chemicals that are rich in nutrients and can help farmers get better crop yields but It can destroy the soil fertility of an area
One advantage of using manure is that they increase the water holding capacity of the soil.
This means that the soil can retain more water, which is important for the proper growth and development of plants.
By increasing the water holding capacity, fertilizers ensure that the plants have enough water even during dry periods.
This can lead to higher crop yields and better overall plant health.
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Sources of Irrigation: Wells, Tube wells, Ponds, Lakes, Rivers, Dams, and Canals.
Tube Well
Traditional Methods of Irrigation
The water available in wells, lakes, and canals is lifted up by different methods in different regions, for taking it to the fields. Here various traditional methods are:
Modern Methods of Irrigation
Sprinkler System: In this system, perpendicular pipes, having rotating nozzles on top, are joined to the main pipeline at regular intervals. When water is allowed to flow through the main pipe under pressure with the help of a pump, it sprinkles from the rotating nozzles. It gets sprinkled on the crop as if it is raining.
Sprinkler System
Drip system: In this system, the water falls drop by drop just at the position of the roots. So it is called the drip system.
Drip System
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5. Protection from Weeds
When Boojho and Paheli visited a wheat field, they noticed some extra plants growing alongside the wheat. These weren’t planted on purpose. They are called weeds.
Weeds are unwanted plants that grow in fields and compete with the crops for water, nutrients, space, and sunlight. This means the crops don’t get everything they need to grow well. Weeds can also make harvesting harder and might even be harmful to animals and people.
Weed Control
To keep crops healthy, farmers need to remove weeds, a process known as weeding. There are a few ways to do this:
Tilling: Before planting crops, farmers plow the soil. This helps uproot and kill weeds so they can dry up and mix with the soil.
Manual Removal: Farmers can pull out weeds by hand or cut them close to the ground using tools like a khurpi.
Chemical Weeding: Farmers use special chemicals called weedicides, like 2,4-D, which kill weeds without harming the crops. These chemicals are mixed with water and sprayed over the field. It’s important for farmers to be careful when using these chemicals. They should cover their nose and mouth with a cloth to stay safe. Manual Removal of weedsThe best time to remove weeds is before they start making flowers and seeds. This helps stop them from spreading and keeps the crops healthy and happy!
6. Harvesting
Cutting down a crop once it has reached maturity or once the crop has ripened is called Harvesting.
When it’s time to harvest, farmers either cut the crops close to the ground by hand using a tool called a sickle or use a machine known as a harvester. After cutting, the next job is to separate the grain seeds from the rest of the plant.
For farmers with smaller fields, this separation is often done by a method winnowing.
Winnowing is a process to separate grain from chaff by tossing the mixture into the air, where the wind blows away the lighter chaff, leaving the heavier grains to fall back down.
This involves tossing the harvested crop into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff (the husks and stems), leaving the heavier grain seeds to fall back down.
WinnowingA combine machine is a combination of a thresher and a harvester.
Combine machine
Question for Chapter Notes: Crop Production and Management
Try yourself:The process of separation of grain from the chaff after harvesting is known as
Explanation
The process of separating grains from the chaff after harvesting is called threshing.
Threshing is a key step in obtaining the usable part of the grain.
It can be done by hand or with large machinery
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7. Storage
Storing harvested grains properly is really important to keep them fresh and safe.
If grains aren't stored correctly, they can get ruined by moisture, bugs, rats, and germs.
Right after harvesting, grains still have a lot of moisture. If they're stored without drying first, they can spoil or become infested with pests, making them unusable.
To prevent this, grains are spread out in the sun to dry before being stored. This helps keep away insects, bacteria, and fungi.
Farmers usually store grains in jute bags or metal bins.
For bigger amounts, they use large storage buildings called silos, which protect the grains from pests like rats and insects.
At home, dried neem leaves can be used to help keep food grains fresh. For very large quantities, special chemical treatments are used to keep the grains safe from pests and germs.
Proper storage keeps the grains in good condition until they're needed!
What are Granaries?
Granaries are the place where freshly obtained food grains are stored.
Granary
Food from Animals
Food comes from many sources, and it's not just plants that provide it. For example, people living near the coast often eat fish (cod liver oil from fish which is rich in vitamin D) as a big part of their meals.
Animals also play a big role in providing us with food, and they need proper care too. When we take care of animals by giving them good food, shelter, and attention, it's called animal husbandry.
Animal husbandry is like farming, but for animals. It involves making sure they are healthy and well-cared for, so they can provide us with things like milk, eggs, and meat. Just like crops, animals need the right conditions to thrive!
Animal Husbandary[Question: 1714473]
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.1. What do you mean by the term crop? Explain briefly the types of crops.
Ans: Crop is the term used to describe a plant that is grown in a field on a large scale. For example, cereal crops, pulses, and fruit crops.
The crops grown in India can be classified as kharif and rabi.
Kharif crops are sown in the rainy season by June/July and are harvested by September/October.
Thus, they are also known as summer season crops. For example, rice, maize, etc.
Rabi crops are sown in the winter season in October or November and are harvested by March/April. Thus, they are also called winter season crops. For example, mustard, wheat, potato, etc.
Q.2. What is irrigation? Name the two main methods of irrigation and define them briefly.
Ans: The artificial method of watering the plants for assisting in the growth of the plants is called irrigation. The two main methods of irrigation are:
Traditional method: The traditional method of irrigation is very less expensive and they often lead to wastage of water. The traditional method of irrigation involves a chain pump, dhekli, moat (the pulley system), and rahat (lever system).
Modern method: Modern methods of irrigation are more inclined towards the use of diesel, bio¬gas, solar energy, and electricity for lifting water.
The two most important modern systems of irrigation are: Sprinkler irrigation system & Drip irrigation system
Q.3. Write a short note on the terms:
Ans:
Storage: Storage of produce is an important task. If the crop grains are to be kept for a longer time, they should be safe from moisture, insects, rats, and microorganisms. Before storing, the grains are properly dried in the sun to reduce the moisture in them. This prevents the attack by insect pests, bacteria, and fungi. Grains are stored by farmers in jute bags or metallic bins. However, large-scale storage of grains is done in silos and granaries to protect them from pests like rats and insects.
Harvesting: After the maturation of crop, harvesting is an important task. In harvesting, crops are pulled out or cut close to the ground. It usually takes 3 to 4 months for a cereal crop to mature. Harvesting in our country is either done manually by sickle or by a machine called harvester.
The document Crop Production and Management Class 8 Notes Science Chapter 1 is a part of the Class 8 Course Science Class 8.
FAQs on Crop Production and Management Class 8 Notes Science Chapter 1
1. What are the basic practices of crop production?
Ans.The basic practices of crop production include preparation of soil, sowing, adding manure and fertilizers, irrigation, protection from weeds, harvesting, and storage.
2. Why is soil preparation important in crop production?
Ans.Soil preparation is crucial because it helps in loosening the soil, improving aeration, and ensuring better water retention. It also facilitates the removal of weeds and pests, creating a healthy environment for crops to grow.
3. How can we protect crops from weeds?
Ans.Crops can be protected from weeds through various methods such as manual weeding, using herbicides, and employing mulching techniques. Regular monitoring and maintaining healthy soil can also help prevent weed growth.
4. What role do manure and fertilizers play in crop production?
Ans.Manure and fertilizers provide essential nutrients to the soil, which are necessary for plant growth. They enhance soil fertility, improve crop yield, and help in maintaining the overall health of the plants.
5. What is the significance of proper irrigation in agriculture?
Ans.Proper irrigation is significant as it ensures that crops receive adequate water for their growth. It helps in preventing drought stress, promotes healthy plant development, and ultimately leads to better yields.