NCERT Solutions Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 the Story of Indian Farming

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 7 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 13: The Story of Indian
Farming

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond (Part I)

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

Part II, 1 – 28 12 34 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 49 pages

Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 7 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND (PART I)

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 13: The Story of Indian
Farming
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming — the opening
chapter of Theme A, India and the World: Land and the People, in Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Grade 7,
Part 2). Every question the chapter asks is answered here: The Big Questions, the THINK ABOUT IT box on
page 2, all eight LET’S EXPLORE boxes, the DON’T MISS OUT question on the Arthaśhāstra's rainfall rule, all
seven points of Before we move on …, and all ten end-of-chapter Questions and activities. The boxes that
carry no question — the two LET’S REMEMBER boxes, the THINK ABOUT IT boxes on drip irrigation (page 18)
and on the Ganga basin (page 26), and the remaining DON’T MISS OUT boxes — are folded into the answers
and the revision table below.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part I) (Class Part II, 1 – 28
7)

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

12 34

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 1
Chapter opening — Theme A, India and the World: Land and the People

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 What are the main characteristics of Indian agriculture?

Indian agriculture has six main characteristics, and every one of them comes straight out of
this chapter.

Page 1 of 49

Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CHARACTERISTIC WHAT THE CHAPTER SHOWS

1. It is very old Rice grains in the Ganga Plain from the 7th–8th millennium BCE; barley and
millets at Mehrgarh in the 7th millennium BCE; barley and wheat as
Harappan staples. Farming here has never stopped.

2. It is very diverse “A vibrant blend of traditional and modern farming practices, with diverse
crops and deep-rooted cultural traditions” — the wheat fields of Punjab, the
saffron valley of Kashmir, the tea gardens of the Northeast and the Nilgiris,
the paddy fields of Kerala.

3. It is broad It is not only crops. ‘Agriculture' here means farming, animal husbandry,
forestry and horticulture, and in places pisciculture and rearing cocoons
for silk.

4. It depends on the The southwest monsoon (June–September) and northeast monsoon
monsoon (October–December) decide the three cropping seasons — kharif, rabi and
zaid.

5. It supports huge About 46 per cent of India's working population and a little over 18 per cent
numbers of people of GDP (2022-2023). In rural areas, more than 75 per cent of agricultural
workers are women (2025).

6. Its farms are small The average landholding is about three-fourths of a hectare — roughly the
size of a football field — because land keeps being divided among family
members.

Why it happens: India is not one farming country but many. Seven climate types, 15
agroclimatic zones and six major soil types sit side by side inside one nation. So the
same country grows saffron at 1,800 m in Kashmir and coconut at sea level in Kerala
— and no single description of ‘Indian farming' can leave out that variety.

Q2 How are farming, climate, soil, and water interrelated?

They are links in one chain. Change any one and the crop changes.

Climate (sunshine, temperature, rainfall) decides when a crop can be sown

Soil (nutrients, moisture-holding, depth) decides what can grow there

Water (rain or irrigation) decides whether it will grow at all

= the crop the farmer actually plants

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Follow the chain through the chapter:

Climate → seasons. The southwest monsoon brings rain from June to September, so kharif
crops (rice, maize, jowar, bajra, cotton) are sown then. The cool, dry months that follow suit
rabi crops (wheat, barley, peas, mustard, gram). The hot gap in between suits zaid crops
(watermelon, cucumber, muskmelon, pumpkin).
Climate → soil. Soil itself is made by climate. Alpine soil forms “by the freezing and melting
of ice”; laterite soil is formed “by the weathering of rock by rain”. Rainfall and temperature
literally build the soil.
Soil → crop. Fig. 1.10 makes this plain. Black soil “holds a lot of moisture and is very fertile”,
so cotton and sugarcane thrive on it. Alluvial soil is “rich in nutrients”, so the Gangetic plains
grow rice, wheat, sugarcane and jute.
Water → everything. “Without it, crops cannot grow.” Where rain is enough, farming is rain-
fed. Where it is not, the farmer must irrigate — and Fig. 1.10's asterisked crops are exactly
those “not here on the ideal soil for their cultivation, but can be grown with efficient
irrigation”.

Why it happens: a plant is not choosy about one thing only. It needs warmth and
nutrients and water together, at the right time. If any one of the three is missing, the
other two cannot make up for it. That is why the same seed gives a fine crop in one
district and fails in the next.

Check it yourself: Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh grow rice all year
round. Not because their soil is unusual, but because monsoon rain plus irrigation
keeps water available in every season. Water was the missing link, and irrigation
supplied it.

Q3 How can traditional practices and contemporary ones complement each other?

Because each is strong exactly where the other is weak.

Page 3 of 49

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming
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TRADITIONAL PRACTICES CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES

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Strength “More resilient and sustainable because they “Highly productive and can produce a

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Weakness “They may yield lower results” Long-term impoverishment of soil, depletion of

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fertilisers, damage to human and animal health

The chapter gives real examples of the two working together:

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ICAR's testing of old knowledge. ICAR has documented almost 5000 traditional practices

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be applied

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Neem-based pesticides — a traditional material, used in place of chemical pesticides, “much
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less harmful to the environment”.
Panchagavya — the five cowgproducts, now shown by “recent studies” to act as a
biofertiliser.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

India's Agricultural Landscape — who is a ‘farmer'?

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 When you read or hear the word ‘farmer’, what do you visualise? Many people
imagine a man. However, in rural areas of India, more than 75 per cent of people
working in the agriculture sector are women (2025). They perform most of the
farming operations, from sowing to harvesting and threshing.

Most of us picture a man — usually a man behind a plough or a tractor, as in pictures 1 and 2
of Fig. 1.1. The chapter asks us to notice that this picture is incomplete.
The figures say the opposite. In rural India, more than 75 per cent of the people working in
agriculture are women (2025). They “perform most of the farming operations, from sowing to
harvesting and threshing”. Look again at Fig. 1.1 on the chapter's first page: picture 3 shows
women transplanting rice seedlings.
Why does the wrong picture stick in our minds?

Photographs, films and advertisements usually show a man with a plough or a tractor.
Land is most often recorded in a man's name, so the man is called “the farmer” while the
woman is called “a helper” — even when she does more of the work.
The work women do — transplanting, weeding, winnowing, threshing, caring for cattle,
storing seed — is done quietly, close to the home, and is rarely photographed.

Why it matters. If we picture only men, then training programmes, tools, loans and
government schemes get designed for men. Equipment is made for a man's height and grip.
The person actually doing the sowing and the threshing is then left out of the help that was
meant for her.

Try this: list every farming job in your own family, village or neighbourhood, and
write beside each one who usually does it. Then count. Most students are surprised
by their own list.

Why it happens: a word carries a picture with it. Change the picture and you change
what people think is normal — and only then do schemes, tools and training start
reaching the women who make up three-quarters of India's farm workforce.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 3

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

India's Agricultural Landscape — your food and your region

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Create a list of the foods you typically eat. Identify the grains, pulses, oils,
vegetables, and fruits in them.

Method. Write down what you actually ate for three days — breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner.
Then break each dish into its raw ingredients and sort those into five columns. Do not sort the
dishes; sort the crops inside them.

Sample answer: a three-day food list for a student in central India

GRAINS PULSES OILS VEGETABLES FRUITS

Wheat (roti, poori) Arhar / tur dal Mustard oil Potato Banana

Rice (bhaat, idli) Chana dal, besan Groundnut oil Onion, tomato Mango (summer)

Maize (bhutta) Moong (green gram) Sunflower oil Brinjal, bhindi Guava

Bajra / jowar (roti) Urad (black gram, in idli) Coconut oil Spinach, cabbage Apple

Two things become visible as soon as the list is made:

Almost every dish is a mixture of several crops. One plate of idli-sambar already needs
rice, urad dal, arhar dal, tamarind, vegetables and oil — grown in different fields, often in
different states.
Several of these are named in this chapter's history section — sesame, black gram, green
gram, mustard, cotton, mango, jackfruit — crops our ancestors were already growing
thousands of years ago.

Why it matters: the plate is where farming reaches you. Once you can name the
crop behind each item, the map of India's soils and seasons stops being a diagram in
a book and becomes a description of your own meals.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Now locate where you live on a physical map of India. (You may refer to the political
map of India at the end of the book if you wish.) Which of the food items do you
think grow in and around where you live? What do you think are the reasons that
they are cultivated in your region?

Method — three steps.

1. Find your district on the physical map. Note what it sits on: plain, plateau, hill or coast.
2. Match that position to Fig. 1.9 (soil types) and to your state's rainfall and temperature.
3. Then check Fig. 1.10, which lists the crops actually grown on each soil type.

What a good answer needs: the crop, the soil it grows on, the season it belongs to, and the
water it gets. Any answer that names crops but not reasons is only half done.

Sample answer: for a student living in the Gangetic plain of Uttar Pradesh

Grown in and around my region: wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize, mustard, potato, arhar dal,
chana dal, mango and guava.

REASON HOW IT WORKS HERE

Soil Alluvial soil — silt brought down by the Ganga and its tributaries, “rich in nutrients”. It is deep,
soft and easy to plough, and it feeds heavy crops like sugarcane and wheat.

Climate Subtropical — hot, wet summers and cool, dry winters. The wet months give a kharif crop of rice;
the cool months give a rabi crop of wheat and mustard.

Water Southwest monsoon rain from June to September, plus canals, tube wells and rivers for the dry rabi
months.

Terrain Flat plain — easy to level into fields, easy to irrigate, easy to use machines on.

Why it happens: farmers do not choose crops at random. Over generations they
learn which crop survives their rainfall, likes their soil and fetches a price in their
market. What you eat locally is the record of that long experiment.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 Which of them comes from other places? Why do you think they are not grown in
your area?

Method. Look for the items on your list that your neighbours do not grow — and then ask which
of the four factors (soil, climate, water, terrain) is missing where you live.

Sample answer: continuing with the Gangetic-plain student above

ITEM COMES FROM WHY IT IS NOT GROWN HERE

Coconut, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Needs a warm, humid coastal climate with laterite or
coconut oil coastal Karnataka sandy coastal soil and no winter cold. Our winters are too
cool and dry.

Tea Assam, Darjeeling, the Needs high rainfall and sloping ground so water drains
Nilgiris away from the roots. Our flat plain would waterlog the
bushes.

Cotton cloth's Maharashtra, Gujarat, Cotton does best on black soil, which “holds a lot of
raw cotton Madhya Pradesh moisture”. Our soil is alluvial — cotton grows only with
efficient irrigation, which is why Fig. 1.10 marks it with an
asterisk.

Apple, walnut Himachal Pradesh, Need a cold temperate or alpine climate with frost in
Jammu & Kashmir, winter. Our plains are far too hot.
Uttarakhand hills

Cardamom, Kerala, the Western Ghats Need heavy tropical-wet rainfall and hill slopes with
nutmeg, rubber laterite soil.

Three honest reasons cover almost every case:

1. The climate is wrong — too hot, too cold, too dry, or the rain comes at the wrong time.
2. The soil is wrong — a crop planted on soil that cannot hold the moisture or supply the
nutrients it needs will simply not repay the effort.
3. The terrain is wrong — tea and coffee want slopes; paddy wants flat, bunded fields that can
hold standing water.

Did you know? A crop can often be forced to grow outside its ideal home — Fig. 1.10
marks such crops with a * and explains they “can be grown with efficient irrigation”.
But it costs more water, more money and more risk. That is exactly why trade exists:
it is cheaper to move an apple than to move a mountain climate.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming
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LET’S EXPLORE — Page 7
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The monsoon and agriculture — what a failed monsoon would cost
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LET'S EXPLORE

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consecutive years. Which items are likely to disappear from your meals, or are likely
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Tip: notice which items on your list would not vanish — those grown with assured
irrigation, or brought from a state whose monsoon was normal. That is exactly why
the chapter says irrigation “enables farming even in areas with low rainfall” and
helps “ensure a more stable food supply for the country”.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 9
The rhythm of seasons and crops: kharif, rabi, and zaid

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Prepare a list of the crops that are cultivated in your state or union territory in a
year and classify them into kharif, rabi, and zaid.

Method. Ask a farmer, a grandparent or your state's agriculture department website for the
crops of your district. Then sort each crop by the month it is sown, using Fig. 1.5 as your key:

Sown June–July, grows Aug–Sep, harvested Oct–Nov → KHARIF (hot, heavy rainfall)

Sown Oct–Dec, grows Jan–Feb, harvested Mar–Apr → RABI (cool, less water)

Sown Mar–May, harvested from June → ZAID (summer season)

The crops Fig. 1.5 itself names, which you can use to check your list:

SEASON CONDITIONS CROPS NAMED IN FIG. 1.5

Kharif Hot, heavy rainfall rice, maize, jowar, bajra, sugarcane, groundnut, cotton

Rabi Cool, less water wheat, barley, peas, mustard, gram

Zaid Summer season watermelon, cucumber, muskmelon, pumpkin

Sample answer: Punjab

KHARIF RABI ZAID

Rice (paddy), maize, cotton, Wheat, barley, gram, mustard Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber,
sugarcane, bajra, moong, (sarson), peas, potato, lentil pumpkin, bitter gourd, summer moong,
groundnut (masur) fodder

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer: Tamil Nadu — note that the local names differ

KHARIF RABI ZAID

Rice (kuruvai), groundnut, Rice (samba, grown on the northeast Watermelon, muskmelon,
cotton, sugarcane, ragi, bajra monsoon), pulses, gingelly (sesame), cucumber, fodder crops,
maize vegetables

Why the calendar shifts from state to state: the seasons are named after the
rains, and the rains do not arrive everywhere at the same time. North and central
India are watered by the southwest monsoon (June–September), so their kharif is
sown in June. Tamil Nadu gets much of its rain from the northeast monsoon
(October–December), so its big paddy crop is sown later. Always classify by the
sowing month in your own district, not by the crop's name.

Did you know? Before the Arabic words kharif, rabi and zaid came into use, these
three seasons were called kedāra (wet crops), haimana (winter crops) and
graiṣhmika (summer crops).

DON’T MISS OUT — Page 10
The Arthaśhāstra on what makes a good rainy season

DON'T MISS OUT

Q1 The Arthaśhāstra contains sections on agriculture, including the preparation of
land and seeds, as well as payment to farmers and other relevant topics. “A good
rainy season is one when one-third of the annual rainfall occurs at the beginning
(Śhrāvaṇa — July-August) and at the end of the season (Kārtika — October-
November), and two-thirds in the middle (Prauṣhṭhapada — August-September and
Āśhvayuja — September-October).” Why do you think this statement was made?
(Hint: Did it have anything to do with the crop cycle?)

Because rain is useful only when it falls at the right moment. The Arthaśhāstra is not
describing how much rain is good — it is describing how the rain should be spread across the
season, and that spread matches the kharif crop cycle exactly.
Lay the quotation beside what a kharif crop needs:

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

PART OF THE SHARE OF WHAT THE CROP IS DOING THEN
SEASON THE RAIN

Beginning — Śhrāvaṇa Part of one- Land is ploughed and the seed is sown. Enough rain to
(July–August) third soften the soil and start germination — but not so much
that the seed rots or is washed away.

Middle — Prauṣhṭhapada Two-thirds — The plant is growing — stems, leaves, flowers and grain-
(Aug–Sep) and Āśhvayuja the largest filling. This is when a crop drinks the most water, so this is
(Sep–Oct) share when most of the rain should come.

End — Kārtika (October– The rest of The crop is ripening and being harvested, and rabi sowing
November) the one-third is about to begin. A little rain leaves moisture in the soil for
the winter crop; heavy rain now would flatten and spoil the
standing harvest.

Total = 1/3 (beginning + end) + 2/3 (middle) = 1 — the whole annual rainfall

Peak demand of the crop = middle of the season = peak share of the rain

Why it happens: a plant cannot store water for later. Rain that falls before sowing
runs off; rain that falls after harvest is wasted or damaging. Only rain that arrives
while the plant is growing turns into grain. Kauṭilya's rule is therefore a farmer's
rule written as a weather rule.

Did you know? The Arthaśhāstra was a manual of statecraft, and rainfall mattered to
the state as much as to the farmer. A well-spread monsoon meant a good harvest,
which meant grain in the granaries, tax revenue for the treasury, and fair “payment
to farmers”. Measuring the rain was, in effect, forecasting the kingdom's income —
which is why the same text also lays down how land and seeds should be prepared.

Tip: compare this with Fig. 1.5. Śhrāvaṇa lines up with kharif sowing (June–July), the
middle months with kharif growing (August–September), and Kārtika with kharif
harvesting (October–November). A 2,300-year-old text and a modern crop calendar
agree line for line.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 11

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Soils of India — zones, your own soil, and a soil investigation

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Try to name at least two states in each of the zones mentioned above.

The chapter names three of India's 15 agroclimatic zones as examples (page 7). Here are states
in each, plus the other zones you are likely to meet.

AGROCLIMATIC ZONE AT LEAST TWO STATES / WHAT IT IS LIKE
NAMED IN THE CHAPTER UTS

Upper Gangetic Plain Region Uttar Pradesh (western and Deep alluvial soil, subtropical climate,
central), Uttarakhand (the canals and tube wells — wheat, rice,
plains belt) sugarcane

Southern Plateau and Hills Karnataka, Tamil Nadu (also Red and black soils on the Deccan
Region Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) plateau, semi-arid — ragi, jowar,
groundnut, cotton, pulses

Western Dry Region Rajasthan (western districts), Sandy desert soil, arid climate, very
Gujarat (Kachchh) low rainfall — bajra, moth, guar,
groundnut

And the seven climate types of the LET'S REMEMBER box on page 6, with states for each:

CLIMATE WHERE THE CHAPTER TWO STATES / UTS
TYPE PLACES IT

Alpine The Himalayas Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh (also Jammu & Kashmir,
Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh)

Temperate The lower Himalayas Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh

Subtropical The northern plains Uttar Pradesh, Bihar (also Punjab, Haryana)

Arid The Thar Desert Rajasthan, Gujarat

Tropical wet Western coastal strip Kerala, Goa (also coastal Karnataka, Maharashtra's
Konkan)

Semi-arid Central Deccan Plateau Maharashtra, Telangana (also interior Karnataka)

Tropical Eastern India and the Odisha, Tamil Nadu (also West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh)
southern peninsula

Page 13 of 49

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Why it happens: a zone is not drawn along a state border. It is drawn where “climate

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factors, different types of soil and terrain, and types of vegetation are combined”.
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PREDOMINATES (FROM FIG. 1.9)

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Desert / Western Rajasthan, and parts of Gujarat (Kachchh) Mostly small grains of sand; becomes

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sandy soil sandy soil when a little water, air and

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Sample answer: “I live in Maharashtra. The predominant soil in my district is black
soil, also called cotton soil. It was formed by the weathering of volcanic rocks of the
Deccan, it holds moisture well and is very fertile — which is why cotton, jowar,
sugarcane and sunflower are the main crops around us. Along the Konkan coast,
however, the same state has laterite soil instead.”

Q3 Soils tell us stories about places — what might have happened over thousands of
years during which the soils were being formed. Take a few samples of soil from
your neighbourhood. Look carefully at them. (Examine the soil using a magnifying
glass or microscope if you have access to either.) What do the samples consist of?
What might be the origins of the soil? Are there signs of human activity that you
notice? What might happen to the soil over time on account of this?

Method — do it like a scientist.

1. Collect three or four samples from clearly different spots — a field or garden, a roadside, a
river or pond bank, and a construction site or waste ground. Label each with the place and
the date.
2. Dry each sample on paper. Then look at colour, smell and feel. Rub a pinch between your
fingers: gritty = sand, smooth like flour = silt, sticky when wet = clay.
3. Look through a magnifying glass and sort what you see into piles: mineral grains, bits of
dead leaf and root, small living creatures, and anything artificial.
4. The jar test. Half-fill a transparent jar with soil, top it up with water, shake it hard, and leave
it overnight. It settles into layers — sand at the bottom, then silt, then clay, with humus and
floating bits on top. You can compare the thickness of the layers between samples.

What a good answer must contain: (i) what the sample is made of, (ii) a reasoned guess at its
origin, (iii) the human traces you actually saw, and (iv) a prediction about the soil's future, with
the reason.

Sample answer: a soil investigation

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QUESTION WHAT I OBSERVED AND CONCLUDED

What do the Sample A (field): dark brown, smooth, slightly sticky when wet, smells earthy; under the lens
samples consist I saw fine mineral grains, bits of broken root and leaf (humus), and two earthworm casts.
of? Sample B (roadside): pale, gritty, mostly sand and small stone chips, hardly any dark matter.
Sample C (pond bank): very fine and smooth — mostly silt, with a few tiny shells.

What might be The fine, smooth particles of A and C are silt “easily transported by rivers from the
the origins? mountains to the plains” — so this is alluvial soil laid down by a river over thousands of
years. The stone chips in B are not natural to a plain; they were brought in as road material.
The dark colour of A is humus built up by generations of plants growing, dying and decaying
on the spot.

Signs of human Small pieces of plastic and glass, brick fragments, a bottle cap, ash from burnt leaves, and
activity? near the field edge a white crust on the surface where fertiliser had been applied. Sample B
was compacted hard by vehicles and had almost no living thing in it.

What might Where plastic and glass are buried, they will not decay and will keep breaking into smaller
happen over pieces, harming the earthworms and microbes that make soil fertile. Where the ground is
time? compacted and bare, rain will run off instead of soaking in, and the topsoil will be eroded
away. Where crop residue, compost or manure keeps being returned, humus will increase and
the soil will get richer. The soil's future is decided by which of these two habits wins.

Why soil “tells stories”: soil forms in four slow stages (Fig. 1.8) — bedrock begins to
disintegrate, organic materials speed up the breakdown, layers form, and finally a
developed soil supports thick vegetation. The process “ranges from a century to
several millennia”. So every handful you hold is a record of the rock beneath, the rain
and frost that broke it, the plants that fed it — and, in the last few decades, of us.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 11
Soil-crop linkages — a group project and a family food flowchart

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Take up a small group project. Identify the types of vegetables, fruits, and trees
that grow in the different soil types.

Method. Divide the class into six groups, one per soil type. Each group uses Fig. 1.10 as its
starting list, then adds the vegetables, fruits and trees it can confirm from a local farmer, a
nursery, a market seller or the state agriculture website. Present the findings as one large wall
chart with the map of Fig. 1.9 in the middle and six labelled boxes around it.
The starting list — exactly what Fig. 1.10 records for each soil area:

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SOIL TYPE CROPS SHOWN IN FIG. 1.10

Alluvial soil rice, wheat, maize, barley, bajra* (pearl millet), chana dal (chickpea), mustard and groundnuts
(peanut), sugarcane, jute, cotton*, fruits and vegetables

Black soil wheat, rice*, jowar (sorghum), urad dal (black gram), sunflower, linseed (flax), groundnuts, cotton,
sugarcane, fruits and vegetables

Red soil rice, wheat*, ragi (finger millet), arhar dal (red gram), groundnuts and mustard*, cotton*, tobacco,
vegetables and fruits

Laterite soil rice, wheat*, ragi, groundnut, sunflower, tea, coffee, rubber, cinchona, coconut, areca nut and
cashew nut, yam, tapioca

Alpine / rice, tea, nutmeg, cardamom, vegetables and fruits
mountain soil

Sandy (desert) maize*, bajra, groundnut, vegetables and fruits
soil

* Read the asterisk carefully. Fig. 1.10 explains: “These crops are not here on the ideal soil for
their cultivation, but can be grown with efficient irrigation.” So an asterisk marks a crop that the
farmer has brought to that soil, not one the soil naturally suits.
Vegetables, fruits and trees your groups can add:

SOIL TYPE VEGETABLES FRUITS TREES

Alluvial potato, cauliflower, cabbage, mango, banana, guava, litchi, mango, neem, sheesham,
brinjal, bhindi, spinach papaya bamboo, poplar

Black onion, tomato, chilli, brinjal orange (Nagpur), grapes, neem, babul, tamarind,
pomegranate, custard apple teak

Red tomato, chilli, drumstick, beans mango, cashew, sapota (chikoo), cashew, mahua, sal,
amla palmyra

Laterite tapioca, yam, colocasia, ash pineapple, jackfruit, banana, coconut, areca nut, rubber,
gourd mangosteen cashew, jackfruit

Alpine / peas, cabbage, potato, beans apple, apricot, walnut, cherry, deodar, pine, oak, willow,
mountain plum tea bushes

Sandy guar (cluster bean), moth bean, ber (jujube), date palm, khejri, babul, neem, date
kachri, cucumber watermelon, pomegranate palm

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the lists differ: vegetables and fruits are just crops with particular needs.
Coconut needs a warm coast and drains easily on laterite; apple needs winter cold
and grows on thin alpine soil; ber and khejri survive on sandy soil because they need
very little water. The soil map is really a map of what each plant can put up with.

Q2 Create a family food flowchart that connects your favourite dishes to the different
crops they are prepared from and the corresponding soil types in which they are
cultivated.

Method. Work backwards in three steps: dish → crops → soil type (and region). Take one
favourite dish per family member so the chart has variety, and draw an arrow from every crop to
the soil it grows on.

CROPS
DISH SOIL TYPE AND REGION
Rajma (kidney bean)
Mountain / alpine soil
Himachal, Uttarakhand hills
Rice

Alluvial soil
Rajma-chawal Onion, tomato Punjab, UP, Bihar, W. Bengal
(the dish)

Mustard oil
Black soil
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
Wheat (roti)

One branch of a family food flowchart: a single plate of rajma-chawal with roti reaches back to three
different soils in three different parts of India.

Sample answer: the rest of the family's chart

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DISH CROPS IT IS MADE FROM SOIL TYPE THEY GROW ON

m l a se
.co ag tamarind, vegetables)
Idli-sambar (my Rice; urad dal; arhar dal; tamarind; Alluvial (rice) · Black (urad, arhar)
sister)
a s em drumstick, brinjal, onion; coconut for · Red (arhar,

ag l chutney; mustard and curry leaf for
tempering
· Laterite (coconut)

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Bajra roti with Bajra (pearl millet); mustard greens; ghee Sandy / desert (bajra) · Alluvial

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sarson saag from cow's milk (mustard)

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(grandfather)

Puran poli (mother)
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ghee sugarcane)
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Masala chai Tea leaf; sugar from sugarcane; cardamom; Alpine / mountain and Laterite (tea,

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(everyone) ginger; milk cardamom) · Alluvial (sugarcane)

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a g What the chart teaches: not one of these meals could be cooked from a single soil

m a s
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type. An ordinary family dinner quietly gathers produce from the Himalaya, the

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Gangetic plain, the Deccan lava country and the Kerala coast. That is the real

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meaning of “soil-crop linkages” — and of the trade that carries the crops to your
kitchen. a

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LET’S EXPLORE
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Sustainable pathways — modern solutions with traditional roots

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LET'S EXPLORE

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Q1 Identify modern agricultural solutions inspired by traditional practices (for
example., neem-basedlpractices).
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TRADITIONAL PRACTICE MODERN SOLUTION WHAT IT ACHIEVES
INSPIRED BY IT

Using neem in stores and fields to Neem-based pesticides “Natural and much less harmful to the
keep insects away environment than chemical ones”

Coating seed with cow dung Beejamrit, developed by ICAR Protects seeds from being spoilt and
before sowing (the Arthaśhāstra — a paste of cow dung and reduces germination time
prescribes exactly this for cotton urine with other materials
seed)

The five cow products used in Panchagavya — dung, urine, “Recent studies have shown that it
households and rituals milk, curd and ghee, acts as a biofertiliser, enhancing crop
fermented growth and productivity while
increasing their resistance to
diseases”

Farmyard manure and cow dung Organic farming — compost, Avoids chemical fertilisers and
to replenish nutrients seed cake (the residue after oil pesticides altogether; Sikkim became
is pressed out of seeds) and the world's first 100 per cent organic
animal manure state after banning chemicals in 2014

Cutting steps into hill slopes for Terracing in hilly areas Creates flat steps that “slow down
cultivation water runoff and reduce soil erosion”

Mulching, and ploughing crop Still practised today, now as Holds moisture and returns organic
residue back into the field recognised soil conservation matter to the soil
techniques

Small ponds that collect rainwater Modern rainwater harvesting Water available beyond the monsoon;
and hold moisture in the soil for and farm ponds less pressure on falling groundwater
longer

Bamboo drip irrigation of the Drip (trickle) irrigation Water goes “slowly and directly to the
Northeast — water led drop by through tubes and emitters plant's roots”, so almost none is
drop from a spring to each plant wasted — the same idea, in plastic
instead of bamboo

Phad systems of Maharashtra — Modern canal networks and Shares a river fairly between many
communities sharing river water water-user associations farms
through small canals

Intercropping and multiple Scientifically planned crop Stops the soil from losing particular
cropping (seen at Kalibangan c. rotation and mixed cropping nutrients, reduces pest risk, and
2800 BCE, Fig. 1.2) “ensured at least one crop”

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Why so many old practices are coming back: ICAR documented almost 5000
traditional practices and tested over a hundred of them. Over 85 per cent “were
validated by modern science and could be applied to reduce the use of chemicals
and enhancing soil health”. In other words, these practices were not superstition —
they were experiments repeated over centuries, and modern testing is confirming
the results.

Tip: when you look for more examples, ask the question the chapter asks — does
this method work with the natural cycle rather than against it? Feeding the soil
instead of only feeding the plant, using an insect's natural enemy instead of a
poison, and giving water at the root instead of over the whole field are all versions of
the same idea.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 25
The Role of the Government — farm programmes on radio and television

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Listen to the special programmes for farmers on the radio or watch a programme
on television for a few days. Write down carefully the information that is shared
through these mediums. Make a short report on the categories of information you
gathered as well as questions that came to your mind during this activity.

Method. Pick one programme and follow it for at least four or five days at the same time each
day — Krishi Darshan on Doordarshan, or the farm broadcast on your local All India Radio
station, or your state agriculture department's channel. Keep a notebook with the date,
programme name, and one line per item. Do not summarise as you listen; write first, sort
afterwards.
What a good report must contain: (i) which programme, station and dates you followed; (ii)
the information sorted into categories, not just a diary; (iii) at least one example under each
category, with the actual figure or name; (iv) the questions the activity raised in your mind; (v)
one short paragraph of your own conclusion.

Sample answer: report on five days of a farm broadcast

Programme: the morning farmers' programme on All India Radio, listened to on five days.

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CATEGORY OF EXAMPLE OF WHAT WAS SHARED
INFORMATION

1. Weather forecast District-wise rainfall expected over the next five days, temperature range, and a
warning about strong winds — with advice to delay spraying until after the rain

2. Market prices The day's mandī rates for wheat, gram, mustard and onion, and which nearby mandī
was paying more

3. Crop advisory When to give the third irrigation to wheat; how deep to sow gram; which variety suits
late sowing

4. Pest and disease alerts A warning about yellow rust in wheat, how to recognise it, and a neem-based
treatment before chemicals are used

5. Government schemes Last date to enrol for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana crop insurance; how to
get a soil health card; subsidy on drip irrigation equipment

6. New research and training An ICAR scientist explaining seed treatment with beejamrit; the date of a training
camp at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra

7. Animal husbandry and Vaccination dates for cattle; fodder for the dry season; a short item on beekeeping
allied activities

8. Farmers' own experiences An interview with a farmer who shifted to organic vegetables and now sells directly
to a nearby town

Questions that came to my mind:

How many farmers in my area actually listen to these programmes — and how do those who
cannot read find out the same things?
The forecast is given for a whole district. Is it accurate enough for one field?
The price is announced for one mandī. Can a small farmer with three-fourths of a hectare
afford to transport his crop to the mandī that pays more?
Advice is given, but who helps if the advice is followed and the crop still fails?
Almost all the advice is addressed to “bhaiyon” — brothers. If more than 75 per cent of rural
agricultural workers are women, why are the programmes not addressed to them?

My conclusion: the chapter says the government helps farmers with “information
on the weather forecast, research and training on new farming practices”, and with
“better access to information and markets through the use of digital technology”.
These programmes are that help in action. Their real value is timing — a pest
warning or a price that arrives a week late is worth nothing, while the same news on
the right morning can save a crop or raise a farmer's income.

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Before we move on … — Pages 26–27
The chapter in seven points

BEFORE WE MOVE ON …

Q1 Indian agriculture blends traditional and modern methods, involving crops,
livestock, forestry, and more.

Two ideas are packed into this sentence.
1. Agriculture is broader than crops. The chapter's definition: agriculture “encompasses the
preparation of soil, cultivation of plants, rearing of livestock, and, in many cases, the growing of
trees as part of a comprehensive farming system”, and in some areas pisciculture (fish rearing)
and rearing cocoons for silk. Very broadly it means farming, animal husbandry, forestry and
horticulture. The Government of India's own grouping, ‘agriculture and allied activities', adds
beekeeping (apiculture), fisheries, silk yarn and fibre production such as cotton and hemp.
2. Old and new stand side by side in the same country — and often in the same field. Look
again at Fig. 1.1 on the chapter's first page:

TRADITIONAL MODERN

(1) Ploughing a field with a ploughshare pulled by oxen (2) A farmer uses a tractor to plough the land

(3) Women transplanting rice seedlings by hand (4) Transplanting seedlings using a transplanter

(6) Transporting vegetables by boat on the Dal Lake, (5) Separating wheat from the stalk using a threshing
Kashmir machine

The chapter says plainly that “many farmers use a combination of methods”. A farmer may keep
gokṛiṣhi — cows for manure, bullocks for the plough — and still hire a threshing machine at
harvest.

Why the blend exists: India's farming history never broke. Practices from
prehistory, from the Vedas, from the Arthaśhāstra, from the Mughal period and from
the Green Revolution have all been added one on top of another, and each was kept
where it still worked.

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Agriculture in India is connected with its diverse climates and the monsoons, with
e
Q2

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three cropping seasons: kharif, rabi, and zaid.

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Climate first. India has seven climate types — alpine (the Himalayas), temperate (the lower

m
Himalayas), subtropical (the northern plains), arid (the Thar Desert), tropical wet (the western
. co ag
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coastal strip), semi-arid (the central Deccan Plateau) and tropical (eastern India and the

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southern peninsula). Each “receives different quantities of sunshine and rainfall, experiences
ag the seasons, and is affected differently by the monsoons”.
variations in the temperatures across
On top of this, India is divided into 15 agroclimatic zones, which combine climate, soil, terrain

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and vegetation, and help the government plan “what, when, and how to grow different crops”.

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Monsoons next.
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Southwest

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a Northeast monsoon — October to December; brings rain to the east and south.

m
Both reach the Malabar (Kerala) and Coromandel (Tamil Nadu) coastal plains — which is why
a s
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farmers in the south can also grow a crop in the gap between the two, while the same
agl
months are a dry season in the north.
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Then the three seasons. This is the timetable Fig. 1.5 sets out:

SEASON CONDITIONS SOWING GROWING HARVESTING
. om IN FIG.
cCROPS
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Kharif Hot, heavy June–July August– October– rice, maize, jowar,

ag l rainfall September November bajra, sugarcane,
groundnut, cotton

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Rabi Cool, less water October– March–April wheat, barley,

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December February peas, mustard,

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gram

Zaid Summer March–May the hot months June onwards watermelon,
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season cucumber,

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agl Why the rhythm matters: “Farmers have been following this rhythm for centuries.
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rhythm is one of the factors that ensures food supply for the people.” Three harvests

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in one year mean the country mis never waiting on a single crop.
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Did you know? Kharif, rabi and zaid are Arabic words in use since Mughal times.
Before that the three were called kedāra (wet crops), haimana (winter crops) and
graiṣhmika (summer crops).

Q3 Six major soil types influence which crops are grown. Soil health is key to
flourishing and sustainable farming.

The six types, as classified today: alluvial, black, red, laterite, desert (sandy) and mountain /
alpine soil. (The ancient Amarakoṣha went further and described twelve types of agricultural
land based on fertility.)

SOIL HOW IT FORMED (FIG. 1.9) FERTILITY TYPICAL CROPS (FIG.
1.10)

Alluvial Silt — mud, sand and fine particles Rich in nutrients rice, wheat, maize, barley,
— brought by rivers from the chana dal, mustard,
mountains and plateaus groundnut, sugarcane, jute

Black Weathering of volcanic rocks Very fertile, holds cotton, sugarcane, jowar,
(cotton soil) a lot of moisture urad dal, sunflower,
linseed, groundnut, wheat

Red Weathering of slowly cooled lava or Not very fertile ragi, arhar dal, groundnut,
old rocks; iron in them reacts with tobacco, rice, vegetables
air and water and turns them red and fruits

Laterite Weathering of rock by rain; most Not fertile tea, coffee, rubber,
(brick minerals washed away, leaving iron cinchona, coconut, areca
earth) and aluminium; hardens in hot nut, cashew nut, tapioca,
weather yam

Alpine / Freezing and melting of ice Thin, rough and rice, tea, nutmeg,
mountain weathers the rock rocky cardamom, vegetables and
fruits

Desert / Mostly small grains of sand, plus a Poor, dries fast bajra, groundnut, maize,
sandy little water, air and organic matter vegetables and fruits

Why soil health, and not just soil type, decides the harvest. Soil is “a complex ecosystem with
organisms like bacteria, fungi, earthworms, and insects”, along with minerals, humus, water
and air. The organisms break down organic material so plants can take up the nutrients; the
plants in turn feed the organisms through their roots. Break that partnership and even a fertile
soil stops producing.

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TRADITIONAL WAYS OF KEEPING SOIL CONTEMPORARY WAYS
HEALTHY

Crop rotation — different crops in the same field in different Terracing on hill slopes — flat steps that slow water
seasons, “to prevent the soil from losing specific nutrients” runoff and reduce erosion

Multiple cropping — several crops in one field; reduced pest Afforestation — planting trees to hold the soil
risk and “ensured at least one crop”, with periodic harvests

Contour ploughing — ploughing along the natural curves of Mulching and ploughing back crop residue —
a slope to avoid erosion by rainwater traditional methods still in daily use

Organic fertilisers such as cow dung, and panchagavya as a Very precise application of fertilisers, so they are
biofertiliser used efficiently and soil health is maintained

Why it happens: soil takes “from a century to several millennia” to form (Fig. 1.8) but
can be exhausted in a few decades of careless use. That difference in speed is the
whole argument for soil conservation — you cannot make more of it in a hurry.

Q4 Seeds are passed down traditionally or bought as high-yield varieties from
companies. This sometimes creates dependence on companies for seeds.

The traditional way. Seeds “have been passed down in families from generation to generation,
preserved at the community level, and shared”. In some areas women carry seeds as part of the
gifts they bring to their marital home. High-yielding seeds were carefully selected and
preserved for the next planting season — the best plants of this year became the seed of next
year. Seed was also treated before sowing: the Arthaśhāstra tells farmers to smear cotton seed
with cow dung, to soak cereals, beans and pulses in dew and then sun-dry them, and to smear
cut sugarcane with honey, ghee and lard before covering it with cow dung. ICAR has revived
exactly this idea as beejamrit.
The company way. “Today, an increasing number of farmers purchase seeds from various
companies. These seeds are developed using scientific processes that provide higher yields and
are pest-resistant.”

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SAVED SEED COMPANY SEED

Cost each Nothing — it comes from your Must be bought again every season
season own harvest

Yield Lower, but steady Higher

Pest Built up slowly by local Bred in scientifically
resistance selection

Next year's Save the best of the crop and “Often the seeds that the plant later produces are not suitable
seed sow it again for planting in the next season”

Who decides The family and the The seed company
community

Why this creates dependence: a farmer who saves seed is inside a closed circle —
harvest feeds next year's sowing. A farmer whose seed cannot be replanted must
return to the shop every single season. “This has drawn criticism because it creates a
dependency of farmers on these seed companies.” If the price rises or the supply
fails, that farmer has no fallback of his own.

Did you know? The Indian seed drill was “an ingenious invention of ancient Indian
farmers”. It combined soil preparation, seed planting and the closing of the furrow in
one operation — turning a three-step job into one and saving a great deal of labour.

Q5 Sustainable farming combines modern technology with eco-friendly practices, such
as efficient irrigation.

What sustainable farming means here: keeping the productivity of modern methods while
dropping the damage. The chapter says the approach “is inspired by Indian Knowledge Systems
(IKS) and focuses on environment-friendly, long-lasting farming practices”.

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MODERN TECHNOLOGY ECO-FRIENDLY PRACTICE IT RESULT
IS JOINED TO

Drip irrigation — tubes and The old aim of never wasting water; Water “used efficiently,
emitters delivering water slowly bamboo drip irrigation of the minimising waste” — vital
and directly to the roots Northeast is the same idea in because “groundwater reserves
bamboo are fast decreasing”

Sprinkler irrigation — spraying Watering the whole field evenly Less water for the same crop
water into the air so it falls like instead of flooding it
artificial rain

Precise application of fertilisers; Adding only what the soil actually Efficient use, and soil health
drones to assess soil moisture lacks maintained
(Fig. 1.12)

Scientific testing by ICAR Almost 5000 documented traditional Over 85% validated — usable “to
practices, over a hundred tested reduce the use of chemicals and
enhancing soil health”

Organic farming at scale Compost, seed cake and animal Sikkim: the world's first 100 per
manure instead of chemical cent organic state, chemicals
fertilisers; neem-based pesticides banned in 2014
instead of chemical ones

India already holds three farming systems that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
has recognised as globally significant agricultural heritage systems: the farming of saffron
in Kashmir, the traditional agricultural systems of Odisha that integrate forest management,
and the below-sea-level methods of Kerala, which combine crop plantation with fishing (Fig.
1.20). Homestead systems such as kulāgar in the Konkan Plains of Goa — food crops, cash
crops, fruits, vegetables, spices and medicinal plants grown together around the house on a
structured irrigated design — are sustainable farming that never stopped.

Why the combination is necessary: the chapter states the trade-off honestly.
Modern techniques “are highly productive and can produce a substantial amount of
food quickly”, but have caused long-term harm; traditional methods “are often more
resilient and sustainable because they work in harmony with Nature; however, they
may yield lower results”. Neither alone is enough. “The challenge today is to find a
balance between the two.”

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Farmers face challenges like small landholdings, climate change, non-affordability
e
Q6

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of modern equipment, and market challenges.

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CHALLENGE WHAT THE CHAPTER SAYS CONSEQUENCE FOR THE

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Shrinking Land “gets divided among family members “Farmers with small landholdings are not
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is about three-fourths of a hectare —

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roughly the size of an average football field.

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Machines out of Tractors and other machines “are designed Work stays slow and hard; the

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rainfall. “likely to get worse as our planet gets
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or fishing, collect forest produce, and grow life to farmers.”

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flourish in every part of India”.
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 The government helps through access to information, research and training, as well
as different types of financial support.

TYPE OF WHAT THE GOVERNMENT DOES WHAT IT SOLVES
HELP

Inputs A support system in many states to help farmers Good-quality inputs reach even a
access seeds, fertilisers and pesticides small farmer

Information Weather forecasts, and better access to The farmer knows when to sow,
information and markets through digital when to spray, and where the price is
technology best

Research and Research and training on new farming practices; New methods actually reach the field
training ICAR's work on traditional practices and on instead of staying in a laboratory
beejamrit

Lower input Electricity for irrigation at lower prices Pumping water does not eat up the
costs profit

Insurance Crop insurance schemes such as the Pradhan One failed monsoon no longer
Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Fig. 1.22) means ruin

Assured The government purchases important crops from “To ensure that they have no
purchase farmers difficulty marketing their produce
and get fair prices”

Storage and Promotion of cold storages; digital access to Produce does not rot before it is sold,
markets markets so the farmer “gets better prices”

Why the government must step in at all: a farmer is a very small seller facing very
large risks. The weather is beyond her control, the harvest all arrives at once, and it
will spoil if it is not sold quickly. Insurance, assured purchase, storage and timely
information each remove one of those risks — and together they let a farmer plan a
year ahead instead of gambling on it.

Tip: notice the pattern in the list. The government does not farm. It supplies the
things a single farmer cannot supply alone — research, a forecast, a national
market, and a cushion against disaster.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Questions and activities — Pages 27–28
End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 Why do farmers in Kerala grow rice while farmers in Punjab grow mostly wheat?
What would happen if they swapped?

Because their climate, soil and water are different — and rice and wheat want different
things.

KERALA → RICE PUNJAB → MOSTLY WHEAT

Climate Tropical wet — hot and humid all year, Subtropical — hot summers but genuinely cool,
no cold winter dry winters

Rainfall Very heavy; rain from both the Moderate; rain mainly from the southwest
southwest and the northeast monsoon monsoon, then a long dry season

Soil Laterite and coastal alluvial; low-lying Deep, fertile alluvial soil of the plains
fields that hold standing water

Water for the Rain does the work; paddy fields stay Canals and tube wells give measured irrigation in
crop flooded winter

What the crop Rice needs heat and standing water Wheat needs a cool growing season and only
needs moderate water; it rots in waterlogged soil

What would happen if they swapped?

Wheat in Kerala would fail. There is no cold season for it to grow in, and the heavy rain
would waterlog the field. Wheat cannot stand in water; the roots would rot and fungal
diseases would spread. Even if a plant survived, the grain would not fill properly in that heat
and humidity.
Rice in Punjab would grow — but at a heavy price. Punjab does not get Kerala's rain, so
every field would have to be flooded from canals and tube wells. That means pumping
enormous quantities of groundwater, in a state where “groundwater reserves are fast
decreasing”. The crop would be there; the water table would fall.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it happens: a farmer's choice of crop is not a matter of taste. Each crop has a
narrow set of conditions in which it repays the effort of growing it. Where the
conditions are right, the crop is cheap to grow. Where they are wrong, it can
sometimes still be forced — Fig. 1.10 marks such crops with an asterisk, “not here on
the ideal soil for their cultivation, but can be grown with efficient irrigation” — but
the cost, in money and in water, is paid every single season.

Did you know? Punjab does in fact grow a great deal of rice today, exactly in this
forced way. It is one of the clearest real examples of what this question is asking
about, and of why the chapter keeps returning to the falling water table.

Q2 Match the following: Column A — (a) Kharif crops, (b) Rabi crops, (c) Alluvial soil, (d)
Terrace farming, (e) Alpine soil, (f) Zaid crops. Column B — (i) Crops during the
winter, (ii) Crops grown during the monsoon, (iii) Thin, rough, and rocky soil found
in mountainous regions, (iv) Crops grown in summer, (v) Soil rich in nutrients
deposited by rivers, (vi) Method of farming on hillsides.

COLUMN A COLUMN B WHY

(a) Kharif (ii) Crops grown during the Sown June–July with the southwest monsoon;
crops monsoon “hot, heavy rainfall” — rice, maize, jowar, bajra,
cotton

(b) Rabi crops (i) Crops during the winter Sown October–December, harvested March–
April; “cool, less water” — wheat, barley, peas,
mustard, gram

(c) Alluvial (v) Soil rich in nutrients Silt “brought by rivers from the mountains and
soil deposited by rivers plateaus; rich in nutrients” (Fig. 1.9)

(d) Terrace (vi) Method of farming on “Farmers cut steps or terraces into the hillside
farming hillsides to create flat land for agriculture” (Fig. 1.17,
Uttarakhand)

(e) Alpine soil (iii) Thin, rough, and rocky soil “Formed by the freezing and melting of ice
found in mountainous which leads to weathering of rock” (Fig. 1.9)
regions

(f) Zaid crops (iv) Crops grown in summer Sown March–May in the “summer season” —
watermelon, cucumber, muskmelon, pumpkin

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Answers: (a) – (ii) · (b) – (i) · (c) – (v) · (d) – (vi) · (e) – (iii) · (f) – (iv)

Tip: do the three season items first — they are the only ones that mention crops.
That leaves just three soil-and-method items to match, and (d) is the only method
among them.

Q3 Why do certain crops thrive in specific regions?

Because a crop only thrives where all four of its needs are met at once: the right climate, the
right soil, enough water at the right time, and suitable terrain. Miss one, and the crop
struggles no matter how good the other three are.

FACTOR WHAT IT DECIDES EXAMPLE FROM THE CHAPTER

Climate Temperature and length of Saffron in the valley of Kashmir; tea in the Northeast and the
the growing season Nilgiris; wheat in the cool winter of Punjab

Soil Nutrients, moisture-holding Cotton on black soil, which “holds a lot of moisture and is very
and depth fertile”; coconut and rubber on laterite soil

Water Whether the crop can be Rice all year in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh,
watered when it needs it “on account of availability of water from the monsoon as well as
irrigation”

Terrain Slope and drainage Tea and coffee on hill slopes; paddy on flat, bunded fields; terrace
farming where the land is steep

India groups these four factors together and calls the result an agroclimatic zone. There are 15
of them, and the categorisation “helps the government and other agencies identify and plan
appropriate actions to improve agricultural production — what, when, and how to grow
different crops.”

Why it happens: every crop is a wild plant that people domesticated in one
particular kind of place. Its needs are still the needs of that place. A region where
those needs are met naturally grows the crop cheaply and reliably; anywhere else
the farmer must supply the missing factor artificially — and pay for it.

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Did you know? Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim travelling in India in the 7th century,

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had already noticed this: “The climate and the quality of the soil being different
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Modern technology has helped in five distinct ways, each named in the chapter.

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1. Higher High-yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds,
chemical fertilisers and pesticides — the Green
“A significant increase in food grain
production, particularly of wheat and rice,

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food”

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2. Less hard Tractors, harvesters, threshing Machinery “to make work faster and
labour easier”; a job that took a family a week
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M.S. Swaminathan, the architect of the Green Revolution, received the Bharat Ratna.

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But be fair to the whole chapter: it also records the cost — “long-term
impoverishment of the soil, depletion of groundwater, contamination of the soil and
water by pesticides and fertilisers, damage to human and animal health”, including a
multiplication of cancer cases in rural areas. Modern technology has helped
enormously; it has not helped without a price, and “more and more agricultural
scientists the world over question the sustainability of this type of agriculture”.

Q5 Why is sustainable agriculture important? Write a short note on this.

Sustainable agriculture is important because farming has to feed people not only this
year, but a century from now — and the methods that produce the most food today are
quietly destroying the things that make farming possible at all.
The problem. The Green Revolution made India self-sufficient in food. But “over the last few
decades, the limits of the approach and methods of the Green Revolution have become visible”:

long-term impoverishment of the soil — the very resource that takes a century to several
millennia to form;
depletion of groundwater, which is “fast decreasing” in many parts of India;
contamination of soil and water by pesticides and fertilisers — “they dissolve and enter
water”;
damage to human and animal health, including the multiplication of cancer cases in rural
areas, “as many scientific studies have established”;
disruption of the ecosystem, “harming important creatures like bees which are so
necessary for pollination”.

The answer. Sustainable agriculture keeps the productivity and drops the damage. It is
“inspired by Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) and focuses on environment-friendly, long-lasting
farming practices” — organic farming with compost, seed cake and animal manure; neem-
based pesticides; efficient drip and sprinkler irrigation; crop rotation and multiple cropping;
terracing and afforestation to hold the soil.

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WHAT SUSTAINABLE WHY IT CANNOT BE REPLACED ONCE LOST
AGRICULTURE PROTECTS

Soil Formation “ranges from a century to several millennia”. No factory
makes topsoil.

Groundwater It is refilled by rain over decades, but pumped out in a season.

Pollinators and soil life Bees, earthworms, bacteria and fungi do work no machine does. Kill
them and the field needs ever more chemicals.

Human and animal health The people harmed are the farming families themselves.

The seed and the knowledge A seed variety or a practice, once abandoned, is very hard to recover.

It is already working. Sikkim banned chemical fertilisers and pesticides in 2014 and became
the world's first 100 per cent organic state. The FAO has recognised three Indian systems as
globally significant agricultural heritage systems — saffron farming in Kashmir, Odisha's forest-
integrated agriculture, and Kerala's below-sea-level farming that combines crop plantation with
fishing. ICAR's testing found over 85 per cent of traditional practices scientifically valid.

The core idea: as the chapter puts it, “The challenge today is to find a balance
between the two — using modern innovations to meet our food needs while also
adopting the sustainable practices of our ancestors.” Sustainable agriculture is that
balance. It treats the soil, the water and the seed as things we have borrowed, not
spent.

Q6 Name some challenges that farmers face today. What might be their impact for
people?

The challenges the chapter names:

1. Decreasing size of landholding — land is divided among family members over generations;
the average is now about three-fourths of a hectare, roughly the size of a football field.
2. Low income — “Farmers with small landholdings are not able to earn much income.”
3. Machines out of reach — tractors and other machines “are designed for larger farms and
are expensive to buy or rent”.
4. Climate change — untimely rains, and more frequent severe droughts and heavy rainfall,
bringing “a higher risk of crop destruction”.
5. Diversified income no longer enough — rearing cattle, goats and poultry, apiculture,
fishing and forest produce once built resilience, but today this “is proving to be inadequate
to provide a decent quality of life”.

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6. Debt — loans taken in hardship become a debt trap. “As many as 2,300 every day, according
to some estimates — have been compelled to abandon agriculture.”
7. Water stress — falling groundwater, and rivers like the Ganga increasingly unable to
replenish themselves.

The impact for people — and not only for farmers.

WHO IMPACT

Farming Falling income, debt, children pulled out of school, and finally the decision to leave farming
families altogether

Villages Migration to cities as families abandon agriculture; skills, seed knowledge and community practices
lost with them

Cities Crowding, pressure on housing and services as migrants arrive looking for work

Every Smaller and less predictable harvests mean higher food prices and shortages — the same effect the
consumer LET'S EXPLORE box on page 7 asks you to imagine after two failed monsoons

The country Agriculture is called “the backbone of the Indian economy”; it is over 18% of GDP and 46% of the
working population. Weaken it and the whole economy feels it

The Desperate farming — more pumping, more chemicals — damages soil and water further, making the
environment next season harder still

Why the impact spreads so far: everybody eats. A farmer's difficulty does not stay
on the farm; it travels along the same chain that carries the food, and reaches every
kitchen in the country. That is why the chapter treats these as national problems, not
private ones.

Q7 Have a debate in class on the topic “Traditional irrigation methods are better than
modern ones.”

Method. Divide the class into two teams, FOR and AGAINST, and a panel of judges. Each
speaker gets two minutes, then two minutes of rebuttal, then one closing speech per side.
Judge on evidence used, not on volume. Prepare by listing the methods in each column first.

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TRADITIONAL METHODS (FROM THE CHAPTER) MODERN METHODS (FROM THE
CHAPTER)

Phad systems — community-based, small canals diverting river water, Drip (trickle) irrigation — water
particularly in Maharashtra delivered slowly and directly to the roots
through tubes and emitters

Bamboo drip irrigation — bamboo pipes carrying spring water to Sprinkler irrigation — water sprayed into
fields in northeastern India the air, falling over the crops “like
artificial rain”

Farm ponds that collect rainwater and hold moisture in the soil for Tube wells and pumps drawing
longer groundwater

The rich vocabulary of water structures — kull, kund, ahar, pokhar, Large canal networks fed by dams
khadin, arakere, koḷam, surangam, taḍāgam, eri

Kallanai, the grand anicut built by Karikāla across the Kaveri about Drones and sensors to decide exactly
1,800 years ago — “a massive and effective water-diverting structure when and how much to water (Fig. 1.12)
that irrigates thousands of hectares of land”

Points for the FOR team (traditional is better):

They have already been tested by time. Kallanai still irrigates thousands of hectares after
1,800 years; no modern structure has that record yet.
They are community-owned. A phad system is run by the farmers themselves, so the water
is shared by agreement, not by who can afford the biggest pump.
They use local materials and local skill — bamboo, earth, stone — so they are cheap to
build and easy to repair without a company or a spare part.
They recharge the ground. Ponds, kunds and khadins let water soak in; a tube well only
takes water out.
They fit the ṛitu chakra — they work with the natural cycle, not against it.

Points for the AGAINST team (modern is better):

Modern methods are far more water-efficient at the plant. Drip irrigation waters only the
roots — “this targeted delivery ensures that water is used efficiently, minimising waste”.
Flooding a field cannot match that.
They work where tradition cannot. Irrigation “enabled farming even in areas with low
rainfall”, raised yields and helped “ensure a more stable food supply for the country”.
They are reliable, and do not depend on a particular landscape — a spring above the field,
or a river nearby.
They can be controlled precisely, with sensors and forecasts, so water is given exactly when
the crop needs it.

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Sample answer: a closing speech that would win on evidence

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“The question is wrongly framed. Traditional methods are better at sharing and
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drip in the Northeast and drip irrigation in a Maharashtra vineyard are the
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of material. The chapter's own verdict is that ‘the challenge today is to find a balance
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Why this is the strongest position: the chapter never claims one side wins. It notes
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that traditional methods are “more resilient and sustainable because they work in
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productive” but have caused groundwater depletion and pollution. A debate answer
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Q8 Write a short essay describing what farming might be like when you are 60 years
old. You could also draw / paint a picture to illustrate what you envision.
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a s em Do not invent freely. Start from a trend the chapter actually describes and carry it
gl forward about fifty years. Give your essay three parts: what will have changed, why it will
Method.
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have changed, and what you hope stays the same.
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What a good essay needs:
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At least three specific developments, each traced back to something in this chapter —
hydroponics, drones, drip irrigation, organic farming, climate change, shrinking
landholdings, the Green Revolution's after-effects.

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a prediction, it is a wish.
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Your own reasoning: “this will happen because…”

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Sample answer: “Farming when I am sixty”
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When I am sixty, the year will beem
a s about 2080, and I think Indian farming will look different in five
ways.
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First, water will be the centre of everything. Today the chapter already warns that
“groundwater reserves are fast decreasing” and that parts of the Ganga are no longer navigable
in summer. By 2080 I think almost no farmer will flood a field. Drip and sprinkler systems will be
ordinary, farm ponds will be everywhere, and the water each farm uses will probably be
measured, the way electricity is measured now.
Second, farms will be smarter than they are large. The average landholding is already only
about three-fourths of a hectare and keeps shrinking. So the machines will shrink to fit — the
chapter notes that “of late machines have been designed and invented for small farms too”. I
imagine small robots weeding between rows, and drones like the one in Fig. 1.12 checking soil
moisture field by field, sending an alert to a phone.
Third, some food will grow without soil at all. Hydroponics is already used “for urban
farming and areas with poor soil quality”. In fifty years I expect vegetables to be grown in tall
buildings inside cities, close to the people who eat them, so that less food is lost in transport.
Fourth, chemicals will be far less common. Sikkim became the world's first fully organic state
in 2014, and ICAR has found over 85 per cent of traditional practices scientifically valid. I think
neem-based pesticides, compost, panchagavya and beejamrit will be the normal choice by then,
not the unusual one — not out of nostalgia, but because the soil will not survive another fifty
years of the alternative.
Fifth, the weather will be harder. This is the part I am least happy about. The chapter says the
risk of crop destruction “is likely to get worse as our planet gets rapidly warmer”. So I expect
stronger crop insurance, better forecasts, and seeds bred to survive drought and flood — and I
expect farmers to grow several crops together, as their ancestors did at Kalibangan in 2800 BCE,
because “diversity builds resilience”.
What I hope stays the same. I hope farming is still a respected life, and that the woman who
does most of the work is finally called a farmer. I hope villages still keep their own seed. And I
hope a child in 2080 can still stand at the edge of a field in November and watch the wheat
being sown, exactly as children have done here for four thousand years.

For the drawing: divide the paper in two. On the left, one panel from the past —
oxen and a wooden plough, as in Fig. 1.1. On the right, the same field in 2080 — drip
lines along each row, a small solar pump, a drone overhead, a rooftop hydroponic
frame in the town behind, and the same farmer walking the same bund. Label both
panels. The point of the picture is the continuity, not the gadgets.

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Q9 Form small groups and discuss the issues affecting the Ganga basin. Prepare a
presentation proposing your solutions and their rationale (your reasons). Share and
discuss in class. Your teacher will guide you in this exercise.

Method. Split into four groups — glaciers and climate, irrigation and groundwater, dams
and river flow, and people and pollution. Each group presents the problem it studied, then
one solution with its rationale — the reason it would work. Finish with a whole-class discussion
of which solutions conflict with each other, because some of them do.
The facts to start from (THINK ABOUT IT, page 26):

With its rich alluvial soil, the Ganga basin has for millennia fed and watered millions — over
500 million people today.
For some years the river “has been under stress and is increasingly unable to replenish
itself”. Parts of it “are no longer navigable in summer as the water level is too low even for
river boats”.
The causes are multiple: global warming is melting Himalayan glaciers “at an
unprecedented rate”; much water is diverted to irrigation; agriculture and industry “pump
out huge amounts of groundwater”; and “hundreds of dams interfere with the river's natural
flow”.
The stakes: “if this condition of Ganga persists, agriculture in its basin may become less and
less sustainable, threatening the livelihood of millions and India's food production.”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ISSUE PROPOSED SOLUTION RATIONALE — WHY IT WOULD WORK

Glaciers melting Reduce emissions locally — solar The glaciers are the river's savings account. They
faster pumps instead of diesel, less melt because the planet is warming, so nothing
stubble burning, more tree cover else works until warming slows. A basin that plants
in the basin trees and stops burning also cleans its own air.

Too much water Shift from flood irrigation to drip Drip “ensures that water is used efficiently,
diverted to and sprinkler; choose crops that minimising waste”. The same harvest with far less
irrigation suit the season; revive ponds and water leaves more in the river — and the chapter
tanks to store the monsoon shows the technology already exists.

Groundwater Rainwater harvesting on every Groundwater and river water are one system — the
pumped out roof and farm; recharge wells; river is fed by the ground it flows through. Refill the
measure and limit industrial ground and the river's dry-season flow returns.
extraction

Hundreds of Release an agreed A river needs a minimum current to carry silt, dilute
dams environmental flow from every waste and stay navigable. Guaranteeing that flow is
dam, and build fish passages cheaper than repairing a dead river.

Pollution and Treat town sewage before it The chapter warns that chemicals “dissolve and
waste enters the river; cut chemical enter water”. Less at the source means less in the
fertiliser and pesticide use in the river — and healthier soil at the same time.
basin; strengthen organic farming

People's School river-monitoring groups, Fig. 1.13 shows the Munsar Lake at Viramgam, built
connection clean-up drives, and reviving the by Minaldevi of the Chaulukya dynasty in the 11th
old idea that water bodies are century, “its banks dotted with small shrines… a
sacred reminder that water bodies have been regarded as
sacred”. What people revere, they protect.

Sample answer: a group's one-minute conclusion
“Our group found that no single solution is enough, because the Ganga is losing
water at three points at once — in the mountains, in the fields and in the ground.
But the fastest saving is in the fields. If the basin's farmers moved from flooding to
drip irrigation, we would keep the same crops with far less water, and that water
would stay in the river. Our proposal is: subsidise drip systems in the basin the way
electricity for pumps is already subsidised, and pair every subsidy with a farm pond.
The rationale is simple — it is cheaper to save water than to find it.”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this problem is hard: every cause has somebody depending on it. The dams
give electricity, the pumps water the crops, the irrigation feeds 500 million people.
So the answer is never “stop” but “use less for the same result” — which is exactly
what efficient irrigation, recharge and sustainable farming are designed to do. As
the chapter says, “Solutions exist”.

Q10 Looking at the crops listed in the section ‘Echoes from the Past’, which ones do you
find in use in your home? What conclusion can you draw from your observations?

Method. First copy out the crop list from ‘Echoes from the Past' (pages 3–5). Then walk through
your own kitchen — the grain bins, the dal jars, the oil tin, the spice box, the fruit basket — and
tick every one you find.
The crops that section names:

GROUP CROPS NAMED IN ‘ECHOES FROM THE PAST'

Grains rice (vrīhi), barley (yava), wheat (godhūma), millets

Oilseeds sesame, safflower, linseed, mustard, castor

Legumes / green gram, black gram, fenugreek
pulses

Fibre crops cotton, hemp, jute

Fruits grapes, dates, jujube, jackfruit, mango, mulberry, black plum (jamun)

Also “more vegetables”; and from the Vedas, sesame, black gram “and various types of pulses and
legumes”

Sample answer: what I found at home

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming
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FOUND IN MY HOME WHERE I FOUND IT

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Rice
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Daily — plain rice, and rice flour for dosa
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Wheat Atta for roti, suji for halwa

Barley Only occasionally — in sattu, and during a fast

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Millets Bajra and jowar rotis in winter, ragi in porridge

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Sesame (til)
ag at Sankranti, and til seeds on bread
Til laddu

Mustard
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Mustard oil for cooking; mustard seeds in the tempering; sarson saag in winter

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Green gram (moong) Moong dal, sprouts

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Black gram (urad) Urad dal; ground with rice for idli and dosa batter; papad

aglFenugreek (methi) Methi seeds in the spice box; methi leaves as a vegetable

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Cotton Almost everything we wear; bedsheets, towels, the kitchen cloth

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Jute The shopping bag and the sack the grain came in

Mango, jackfruit, jamun, grapes, In season — mango pickle all year, dates in winter

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dates, ber (jujube)

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Castor, linseed, safflower, hemp, Not in my kitchen — though mulberry feeds the silkworms whose silk is in my

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mulberry mother's saree, and safflower oil is sold in our

agl Conclusions I can draw:
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2. Indian farming has been continuous, not broken. These crops were being grown here
thousands of years ago a
— barley and wheat by the Harappans, rice in the Ganga Plain in the
7th–8th millennium BCE — and nobody had to reintroduce them. The knowledge of how to
grow, store and cook them was handed down without a gap.
. c om
m a s em yava, godhūma and
3. Our food is a living historical document. When the Vedas mention

. o they are naming the barley, wheat and rice on my own
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agl ploughshare pulled by oxen became a tractor. But the crop is the same one our ancestors
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5. A few have faded. Castor, linseed, safflower and hemp are rare in ordinary kitchens now — a

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reminder that a crop can be lost
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this matters: Fig. 1.2 makes the same point in one image — intercropping at
Kalibangan around 2800 BCE, and the identical criss-cross furrows in a field in the
1960s, “around 4800 years later!” Indian farming is not a subject in a history book. It
is what was cooked in your kitchen this morning.

Chapter at a glance
Farming is one of the oldest occupations of humankind, and India's oldest story.
Broadly, ‘agriculture’ covers farming, animal husbandry, forestry and horticulture, and in
some places pisciculture and silk rearing too. A little over 18 per cent of India's GDP and
about 46 per cent of its working population depend on agriculture and allied activities
(2022-2023). In rural India, more than 75 per cent of those working in agriculture are
women (2025).
Indian farming goes back to prehistory. Rice grains appear in the Ganga Plain as early as
the 7th–8th millennium BCE; barley and millets were cultivated at Mehrgarh in the 7th
millennium BCE; barley and wheat were the staples of the Harappans. Fig. 1.2 shows
intercropping at Kalibangan around 2800 BCE — and the very same criss-cross furrows
still in use in the 1960s, about 4800 years later.
Climate sets the calendar. India has seven climate types and 15 agroclimatic zones. The
southwest monsoon (June–September) waters the kharif crops of north and central India;
the northeast monsoon (October–December) waters the east and south. Farming follows
three seasons — kharif (monsoon), rabi (winter) and zaid (summer) — Arabic words used
since Mughal times, earlier called kedāra, haimana and graiṣhmika.
Soil decides what will actually grow. Soil is the thin upper layer of the Earth's crust, built
up over millions of years from broken rock and decayed organic matter. India has six major
soil types — alluvial, black, red, laterite, desert (sandy) and mountain/alpine. Farmers
keep soil healthy by crop rotation, multiple cropping, contour ploughing and organic
manure, and today also by terracing, afforestation, mulching and precise use of
fertilisers.
Water divides Indian farming in two. Rain-fed farming depends entirely on rainfall;
irrigated farming supplies water artificially. India has a very long irrigation history — kull,
kund, ahar, pokhar, khadin, arakere, koḷam, surangam, taḍāgam, eri — plus phad systems in
Maharashtra, bamboo drip irrigation in the Northeast, and the Kallanai of Karikāla, about
1,800 years old. Modern methods are drip and sprinkler irrigation.
The challenge today is balance. The Green Revolution of the 1960s–70s brought HYV
seeds, irrigation, chemicals and machines, and India became self-sufficient in food — but it
also brought soil impoverishment, falling groundwater and pollution. Sustainable
pathways — organic farming, neem-based pesticides, Sikkim as the world's first 100 per

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

cent organic state — try to join modern productivity to traditional wisdom. Farmers still face
small landholdings (about three-fourths of a hectare), debt and climate change.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING
APPEARS IN
THE
CHAPTER

Agriculture Preparation of soil, cultivation of plants, Page 2, India's From Latin agri = field and
rearing of livestock and often growing of Agricultural culture = to cultivate (DON'T
trees — broadly farming, animal Landscape MISS OUT, page 2)
husbandry, forestry and horticulture

Agriculture and The Government of India's grouping: DON'T MISS Just over 18% of GDP; about
allied activities agriculture, livestock activities, OUT, page 2 46% of the working population
beekeeping (apiculture), fisheries, (2022-2023)
silkworm rearing and silk yarn, and fibre
production such as cotton and hemp

Threshing Removing the edible grain from the Margin note, More than 75% of rural
straw or husk, manually or using a page 2 agricultural workers are
machine women (2025) — they sow,
harvest and thresh

Intercropping The practice of growing two or more Margin note, Seen in the perpendicular
different crops simultaneously page 4; Fig. 1.2, furrows at Kalibangan, c. 2800
Fig. 1.3 BCE — and again in the 1960s

Grafting Joining one plant with another so that Margin note, The Bṛihatsamhitā describes a
they grow as a single plant, combining page 5 grafting method still in use
desirable traits like pest resistance or today
sweetness

Agroclimatic A region defined by combining climate Pages 6–7 India has 15 — e.g. Upper
zone factors, soil and terrain types, and Gangetic Plain, Southern
vegetation Plateau and Hills, Western Dry
Region

Kharif / rabi / The monsoon, winter and summer Pages 8–9; Fig. Arabic words used since
zaid cropping seasons 1.5 Mughal times; earlier kedāra,
haimana, graiṣhmika

Humus The dark organic matter in soil formed Margin note, Humus is the Latin word for
by the decomposition of plant and page 10 ‘earth' or ‘soil'
animal matter; rich in nutrients, retains
moisture

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING
APPEARS IN
THE
CHAPTER

Weathering The process by which rocks and Margin note, Black, red, laterite and alpine
minerals are broken down into soil page 12 soils are all named by how they
particles by physical, chemical or were weathered
biological means

Silt Fine, dust-like sediment of rock and Margin note, Silt carried from the mountains
mineral particles — larger than clay, page 12 is what makes alluvial soil rich
smaller than sand, and easily carried by
rivers

Bedrock The original rock from which new rocks Margin note, Stage 1 of soil formation:
and soils are derived through page 13; Fig. bedrock begins to
weathering, erosion and other processes 1.8 disintegrate

Soil Managing soil to prevent its degradation Margin note, Traditional: crop rotation,
conservation and preserve its productivity page 14 multiple cropping, contour
ploughing · Modern: terracing,
afforestation, mulching

Panchagavya A fermented mixture of five cow DON'T MISS Recent studies show it works
products — dung, urine, milk, curd and OUT, page 14 as a biofertiliser and raises
ghee disease resistance

Beejamrit An ICAR-developed paste of cow dung Page 19 Protects seeds from spoiling
and urine with other materials, used to and reduces germination
coat seeds before planting time

Phad system A community-based irrigation system Page 17 Found particularly in
that diverts river water to fields through Maharashtra
small canals

Bamboo drip Bamboo pipes used to channel water Page 17; Fig. Traditional in parts of
irrigation from springs to fields 1.14 northeastern India

Kallanai The grand anicut built by Karikāla Page 17 A massive water-diverting
across the Kaveri about 1,800 years ago structure that still irrigates
(LET'S REMEMBER, page 17) thousands of hectares

Drip / sprinkler Drip (trickle) irrigation delivers water Pages 17–18; Both save water — vital
irrigation slowly and directly to the roots through Figs. 1.15, 1.16 because groundwater
tubes and emitters; sprinklers spray reserves are fast decreasing
water into the air so it falls like artificial
rain

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 13 The Story of Indian Farming
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TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING

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APPEARS IN

.
THE
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CHAPTER

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Kulāgar A traditional homestead farming system DON'T MISS Common in the Konkan Plains
OUT, pages 20– (Goa)
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— Konkani kula (family) + āgar

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(storehouse) — growing food crops,

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cash crops, fruits, vegetables, spices and
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medicinal plants around the home

Gokṛiṣhi A holistic system in which cows give DON'T MISS Aligned with the ṛitu chakra,

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manure for organic fertiliser and OUT, page 21 the cycle of seasons

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bullocks plough the fields

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Green Page 21

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Revolution high-yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds, architect, received the Bharat
increased irrigation, chemical fertilisers Ratna
and pesticides, and mechanised

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equipment

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and pesticides, relyinglon compost, seed
Organic Farming that avoids chemical fertilisers Page 22 Sikkim is the world's first 100
farming
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cake and animal manure
per cent organic state —
chemicals banned in 2014

Hydroponics DON'T MISS
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An option for urban farming
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Growing plants in nutrient-rich water

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solutions, with minerals given directly to OUT, page 24
a s e needed
areas with poor soil — no

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the roots soil at all

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Landholding / A landholding is an area of land a person Margin notes, India's average landholding is
hectare owns; 1 hectare = 10,000 square metres page 25 about three-fourths of a
(an acre is about 4047 sq m) hectare — roughly a football
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