Crops and Farming

Farming is where most Indian food begins, and Classes 4 and 5 EVS follows a crop from ploughing to the plate. The chapter also introduces crop seasons, farming tools and the difference between farming for the family and farming for sale.

Steps in growing a crop

1. Ploughing — loosening the soil so air and water reach the roots.
2. Sowing — scattering seeds by hand or with a seed drill.
3. Manuring — adding cow dung, compost or fertiliser.
4. Irrigation — watering by canal, well, tube well, tank or drip.
5. Weeding — removing unwanted plants that compete for food and water.
6. Harvesting — cutting the ripe crop.
7. Threshing and winnowing — separating the grain and blowing away the husk.
8. Storage — keeping the grain dry and safe from pests.

Crop seasons

The kharif and rabi distinction is the most asked EVS agriculture item. Fix it by the monsoon: kharif is sown with the rains, rabi is the winter crop sown after them.

The revolutions

• Green Revolution — the rise in food grain production, especially wheat, from the mid-1960s using high-yielding seeds, fertiliser and irrigation. M. S. Swaminathan led it in India and Norman Borlaug developed the seeds. Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh gained most.
• White Revolution or Operation Flood — the growth of milk production led by Verghese Kurien, which made India the largest milk producer.
• Blue Revolution — fisheries. Yellow Revolution — oilseeds.

Farming and the child's world

Many CTET candidates will teach in villages where children work in fields before and after school. The chapter is best taught through what those children already know: naming local crops, bringing seeds, describing the tools their family uses, and visiting a field. Their knowledge becomes the lesson, which is the clearest example of EVS's principle of starting from the child's environment.

✗ Wheat is a kharif crop sown with the monsoon.  |  ✓ Wheat is a rabi crop, sown in winter and harvested in spring.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between kharif and rabi crops?

Kharif crops are sown at the start of the monsoon in June and July and harvested in September and October, such as rice and maize. Rabi crops are sown in winter from October to December and harvested in March and April, such as wheat and gram.

What was the Green Revolution?

The large rise in Indian food grain production from the mid-1960s, especially of wheat, achieved through high-yielding seeds, chemical fertilisers and assured irrigation. M. S. Swaminathan led it in India.

What are threshing and winnowing?

Threshing is separating the grain from the harvested stalks, and winnowing is removing the lighter husk by letting wind blow it away while the heavier grain falls. Both come after harvesting and before storage.