Social Science (087) — CBSE Class 10 board question

Intensive Subsistence Farming:

• Practised in areas of high population pressure on land.
• It is labour intensive, using high doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation to obtain higher production.
• Due to the right of inheritance, landholdings become small and uneconomical, yet farmers try to get maximum output from limited land.
• There is enormous pressure on agricultural land as farmers lack alternative sources of livelihood.

Plantation Farming:

• A type of commercial farming where a single crop is grown on a large area.
• It is capital intensive, using migrant labourers and modern inputs.
• All produce is used as raw material for industries.
• Important plantation crops in India: tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana.
• Requires a well-developed transport and communication network linking plantations, processing industries, and markets.

Source: Agriculture, Types of Farming, Chapter 4

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• The question asks for both types — divide your answer clearly into two parts.
• Examiners expect 2–3 points per type since it is a 5-mark question.
• Key terms to include: labour intensive, biochemical inputs, capital intensive, single crop, migrant labourers, raw material, transport network.
• Avoid mixing the two farming types — keep them separate and labelled.
• Examples of plantation crops (tea in Assam, coffee in Karnataka) add value and are directly from the textbook.