Question

What are the different ways of increasing production on the same piece of land? Use examples to explain.

Answer 1

There are two ways, one way is through multiple cropping, the other way is through adoption of Modern Farming techniques. These two methods are explained further in the below answer.

Multiple Cropping

• The usual way of increasing production in a land is through multiple cropping, which is possible due to irrigation.
• Multiple cropping means growing more than one crop on a piece of land during the year.
• Due to the well-developed system of irrigation, farmers are able to grow three different crops in a year.
• Atleast two crops are grown by farmers of Palampur. From the past fifteen to twenty years, potato is grown as the third crop.
• Bajra and Jowar are grown by the farmers during the Kharif (rainy) season.
• Between October and December it is followed by potato.
• Wheat is sown in the fields during the winter season.
• Farmers could notice that large areas of land could be irrigated in a much more effective manner using electric-run tubewells.
• Government installed the first few tubewells.
• Very soon private tubewells started coming up which were set up by farmers themselves.
• Due to the above efforts, it resulted in irrigation of the entire cultivated area of about 200 hectares by the mid-1970s.

Modern Farming Techniques

• The agricultural production from a piece can be increased through using modern farming techniques.
• In the late 1960s the Green Revolution massively increased agricultural output.
• Farmers used high yielding varieties (HYV) seeds. From a single plant, larger amounts of grain could be produced from high yielding varieties of seeds when compared to traditional seeds.
• Hence, the same piece of land produced more output when compared to earlier farming techniques.
• To produce best results, high yielding varieties of seeds need pesticides, chemical fertilizers and plenty of water.
• In India, the modern farming method was first adopted by farmers based out of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab.
• For irrigation purposes, farmers in these regions started using tubewells.
• To harvest and plough faster, farmers even bought modern equipment like threshers and tractors.
• There was a very high yield of wheat, as a result of adopting modern farming techniques.
• In Palampur, the yield was 3,200 kg per hectare using high yielding varieties of seeds, whereas the yield was only 1,300 kg per hectare using traditional varieties of seeds.