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Which is the most useful and oldest method of agriculture.

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Verified by Toppr

Some of the most useful and oldest methods of agriculture practiced in India are as follows :

1. Subsistence farming:
The majority of farmers in large parts of the country practice subsistence farming. Farmers cultivate small and scattered holdings with the help of draught animals and family members. Techniques are primitive and tools are simple. Modern farm implements are practically absent.
Farmers are too poor to purchase fertilizers and high yielding varieties of seeds as a result of which the productivity is low, Facilities like electricity, irrigation, and credit are badly lacking. As such, the farmer and his family members consume the entire farm produce and do not have any surplus farm products to sell in the market. The main emphasis is on food crops although some other crops such as sugarcane, oilseeds, cotton, jute, tobacco also occupy an important place in some areas.
Large scale improvement has been brought in Indian agriculture after Independence. Farming techniques were improved and the holdings became large and properly arranged as a result of consolidation. Mechanisation of agriculture increased.
As of now, the financial position of the farmers has improved and they can now afford to buy chemical fertilizers and high-yielding varieties of seeds. They are able to avail facilities like irrigation, electricity, loans, etc.
In this way, our agriculture could come out of primitive subsistence stage. But even now, many farmers do not have any surplus to sell in the market at commercial scale.

2. Shifting agriculture:
This is a type of agriculture in which a piece of forest land is cleared mainly by tribal people by the felling and burning of trees and crops are grown. After 2-3 years when the fertility of the soil in the cleared land decreases, it is abandoned and the tribe shifts to some other piece of land.
The process continues and the farmers again shift to the first piece of land after a gap of 10-15 years. This type of agriculture is practiced over an area of 54 lakh hectares, 20 lakh hectares being cleared every year. Dry paddy, buckwheat, maize, small millets, tobacco, and sugarcane are the main crops grown under this type of agriculture.
This is a very crude and primitive method of cultivation which results in large scale deforestation and soil erosion especially on the hillsides causing devastating floods in the plains below. About one million hectares of land is degraded every year due to shifting agriculture.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to put a check on this practice. For this purpose, the tribal people need to be educated about the damage caused by this practice to the natural resources like vegetation and soil.

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