Agriculture

Subsistence farming — done for one's own family, small fields, more manual labour (intensive — India; shifting — jhum). Commercial farming — done for selling, large fields, machines, hired workers (plantation — tea/coffee; grain farming — Prairies). One is for survival, the other is a business.

Slash-and-burn: cut the forest, let it dry and burn it, grow one or two crops on the ash-enriched soil, then leave and move to another place. It is called 'jhum' in North-East India. Disadvantages: forests are destroyed, soil erosion occurs, forest fires spread. The government is now discouraging it and promoting alternative farming methods.

Kharif — monsoon season (June–October), hot and wet conditions: rice, maize, millet, cotton, jute. Rabi — winter season (October–March): wheat, gram, mustard, cumin. Water availability and weather conditions determine which season a crop belongs to.

A single crop grown on very large fields, with hired workers, and sold up to the factory level. Examples: tea (Assam, Darjeeling), coffee (Brazil — largest producer; Karnataka), rubber (Malaysia), sugarcane. Every plantation also has its own processing unit (such as a tea factory).

Jute fibres are used to make sacks, ropes, mats, and jute bags — before plastic became common, almost everything was made from jute. It grows in waterlogged soil (West Bengal). It is called the 'golden fibre' because of its golden colour and because it once earned a great deal of money through exports.

Input — land, seeds, fertiliser, water, labour, money. Operations — ploughing, sowing, irrigation, applying fertiliser, weeding, harvesting. Output — crop, straw, milk, seeds. Everything forms one system — a good harvest is possible only when everything is kept in balance.