NCERT solutions for Environmental Studies - Looking Around [English] Class 5 chapter 19 - A Seed tells a Farmer’s Story [Latest edition]

Are rotis made in your home? From which grains are they made?

Have you eaten roti made from bajra or jowar? Did you like these?

In your house what is done to protect grains and pulses from insects?

Which are the different festivals related to farming, celebrated in different seasons? Find out more about anyone such festival and write in your notebook –

The name of the festival, in which season is it celebrated, in which states of India, what special foods are made, is it celebrated only at home with the family, or together with many people.

Talk to the elders in your family and find out if there were some special foods cooked earlier that are not cooked anymore?

Find out about the crops - cereals, vegetables, pulses - that are grown in your area. Of those, is there anything that is famous across the country?

Can you recognize these grains?

The bajra seed saw differences in the way Damjibhai and Hasmukh did farming (for example, in irrigation, ploughing, etc). What were these differences?

Hasmukh said, “With profits from our fields, we can progress.” What is your understanding of ‘progress’?

What kind of progress would you like to see in your area?

What can happen to Hasmukh’s farm after some years?

Damjibhai’s son Hasmukh chose to become a farmer like his father. Hasmukh’s son Paresh is not a farmer, but a truck driver. Why would he have done so?

The seeds were not sure that what Hasmukh was talking about was really progress. What do you feel?

Have there been any changes near your area, which may be difficult to call ‘progress’? What changes are these? What are the different opinions about them?

What questions come to your mind about farmers and farming? Write some questions in your group and ask a farmer. For example, how many crops do they grow in a year? Which crop needs how much water?

Visit a farm near your area. Observe and talk to the people there. Write a report.

What can you see in each picture on the next page?

In picture 2 you can see the bajra cobs in the mortar (okhli, used for crushing). The cobs are crushed with a pestle (moosli) and the seeds are separated from the cob. You can see the separated seeds in picture 3. Now this work is also done by big machines, like threshers. We call both these different ‘technologies’ – using our hands or big machines – to crush the seeds.

What technology could have been used to cut the stem in picture 1? What do you think is being done in the grinder (chakki ) in picture 4? What ways (technologies) would have been used to do the work shown in pictures 5 and 6? You can see that the dough is ready in picture 6. When do you think a sieve (chhalni ) would have been used? Discuss each step in detail, in any language you wish to use.

There have been many changes over time, in our food. What can this mean? Use the seed story and what you know from your elders to explain.

What would happen if all the farmers were to use only one kind of seed and grow only one kind of crop?