Agriculture in India PDF

CROPPING PATTERN water melon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops. Sugarcane takes You have studied the physical diversities and almost a year to...

CROPPING PATTERN water melon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops. Sugarcane takes You have studied the physical diversities and almost a year to grow. plurality of cultures in India. These are also reflected in agricultural practices and Major Crops cropping patterns in the country. Various A variety of food and non food crops are types of food and fibre crops, vegetables and grown in different parts of the country fruits, spices and condiments, etc. constitute depending upon the variations in soil, climate some of the important crops grown in the and cultivation practices. Major crops grown country. India has three cropping seasons in India are rice, wheat, millets, pulses, tea, — rabi, kharif and zaid. coffee, sugarcane, oil seeds, cotton and jute, Rabi crops are sown in winter from October etc. to December and harvested in summer from April to June. Some of the important rabi Rice: It is the staple food crop of a majority of crops are wheat, barley, peas, gram and the people in India. Our country is the second mustard. Though, these crops are grown in largest producer of rice in the world after large parts of India, states from the north China. It is a kharif crop which requires high and north-western parts such as Punjab, temperature, (above 25°C) and high humidity Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and with annual rainfall above 100 cm. In the areas Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are of less rainfall, it grows with the help of important for the production of wheat and irrigation. other rabi crops. Availability of precipitation during winter months due to the western temperate cyclones helps in the success of these crops. However, the success of the green revolution in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan has also been an important factor in the growth of the above- mentioned rabi crops. Kharif crops are grown with the onset of monsoon in different parts of the country and these are harvested in September-October. Important crops grown during this season are paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut and soyabean. Some of the most important rice- Fig. 4.4 (a): Rice Cultivation growing regions are Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, T amil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, particularly the (Konkan coast) along with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Recently, paddy has also become an important crop of Punjab and Haryana. In states like Assam, West Bengal and Odisha, three crops of paddy are grown in a year. These are Aus, Aman and Boro. In between the rabi and the kharif seasons, there is a short season during the summer months known as the Zaid season. Some of Fig. 4.4 (b): Rice is ready to be harvested in the the crops produced during ‘zaid’ are field 32 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II Reprint 2024-25