4.11 Farming Organisation — Cooperative & Collective

Beyond the climatic and crop classifications used so far, types of farming can also be sorted by farming organisation — the way in which farmers own their farms and the policies of the government that help to run them. Two organisational forms in particular are world-famous because of their political histories: the voluntary cooperative and the state-driven collective.

A. Cooperative Farming

A group of farmers form a cooperative society^? by pooling in their resources voluntarily for more efficient and profitable farming. Crucially, individual farms remain intact — the cooperative is a matter of joint initiative, not joint ownership. The land, the cattle and the labour stay with the family; the cooperative is a layer above them that does what no single small farmer could do alone.

Cooperative societies help farmers in three big ways:

Where Has the Cooperative Movement Succeeded?

The cooperative movement originated over a century ago and has been very successful in many western European countries — notably Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Italy. In Denmark, the movement has been so successful that practically every farmer is a member of a cooperative.

B. Collective Farming — The Kolkhoz Model

The basic principle behind collective farming^? is the social ownership of the means of production and collective labour. It is the very opposite of cooperative farming: in collective farming, the individual farms are merged and the land is owned and worked jointly. The model of Kolkhoz^? was introduced in the erstwhile Soviet Union to improve upon the inefficiency of the previous methods of agriculture and to boost agricultural production for self-sufficiency.

The farmers used to pool in all their resources like land, livestock and labour. They were allowed to retain only very small private plots to grow crops to meet their daily requirements. The system was abandoned with the dissolution of the Soviet Union — large-scale political experiments in agriculture have generally proved less efficient than the voluntary cooperative pathway.

SVG — Cooperative vs Collective Farming Compared

Figure 4.9: The cooperative pools services while the collective pools land itself. The cooperative model has been more durable; the collective model was largely abandoned with the end of the Soviet system.

4.12 Mining

The discovery of minerals in the history of human development is reflected in the names of whole epochs — the copper age, bronze age and iron age. The use of minerals in ancient times was largely confined to making tools, utensils and weapons. The actual development of mining as an industrial activity began with the industrial revolution, and its importance has been increasing ever since.

Factors Affecting Mining Activity

The profitability of mining depends on two big families of factors:

Methods of Mining — Open-cast vs Shaft

Depending on the mode of occurrence and the nature of the ore, mining is of two main types: surface mining and underground mining.

(i) Surface (Open-cast) Mining — Strip Mining

Open-cast mining^? — also called strip mining — is the easiest and cheapest way of mining minerals that occur close to the surface. Overhead costs such as safety precautions and equipment are relatively low. The output is both large and rapid. Bulldozers strip away the topsoil and overburden, exposing the ore for direct extraction.

(ii) Underground (Shaft) Mining

When the ore lies deep below the surface, the underground or shaft mining^? method has to be used. Vertical shafts are sunk, from where underground galleries radiate to reach the minerals. Minerals are extracted and transported to the surface through these passages. The method requires specially designed lifts, drills, haulage vehicles and ventilation systems for the safety and efficient movement of people and material.

Shaft mining is risky. Poisonous gases, fires, floods and caving-in lead to fatal accidents. Mine fires and the flooding of coal mines have been a recurring tragedy in India.

SVG — Mining Cross-Section: Open-cast vs Shaft

Figure 4.10: Two principal mining methods. Open-cast (strip) mining works ores close to the surface and is cheap and rapid; shaft mining reaches ores at depth via vertical shafts and radiating underground galleries.

A Shifting Geography of Mining

Developed economies are retreating from mining, processing and refining stages of production due to high labour costs, while developing countries with large labour forces and striving for a higher standard of living are becoming more important. Several countries of Africa, and a few of South America and Asia, earn over fifty per cent of their export earnings from minerals alone.

Major World Mineral Belts

Chart — Top World Oil Producers

Figure 4.11: Approximate share of global crude oil production by leading countries. The Persian Gulf belt and Russia together dominate the supply side of the global oil market.

4.13 Conclusion — The Foundation Layer

The seven branches of primary activity — hunting and gathering, pastoralism, fishing, forestry, agriculture and mining — form the foundation of every other layer of the economy. Without the red-collar worker, no factory, office or service exists. The chapter has tracked these activities from the most primitive (gathering medicinal bark in the Amazon) to the most industrial (extracting offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico). Each form is shaped by climate, soils, technology and politics — and every one of them, even the most modern, ultimately depends on the earth and the people who agree to work outdoors.

📚 NCERT Exercises — Full Model Answers

📋 Chapter Summary

📑 Key Terms — Glossary