AGRICULTURE
Significance of agriculture:
● Provides employment: ⅔ of population involved in agriculture, related activities.
● Food production: Agriculture provides food security for large population.
● Raw materials for agro-industries
● Foreign exchange - Generates export income
● GDP: Generates 26% of Indian GDP
1 - TYPES OF FARMING
● Agriculture - Age old economic activity in the country.
● Cultivation methoods changed significantly - depend on physical enviroment, technical
know-how, socio-cultural practices.
● Broad Types of farming - Subsistence, Commercial
1.1 - PRIMITIVE SUBSISTENCE FARMING
● Practiced in a few pockets in India.
● Practiced on small patches of land, primitive tools like hoe, dao, digging sticks used.
● Depends on monsoon, natural soil fertility, sustainability of other environmental
conditions.
● Slash and Burn Agriculture - Farmer clears, burns patch of land, produce cerals, other
food crops top sustain family.
● When soil fertility decreases, farmer abandons patch for few years, clears another patch -
replenishes fertility through natural processes.
● Land productivity is low - farmer doesn’t use fertilisers, modern inputs.
● Known by other names in the country - Jumming in northeast, Pamlou in manipur, Dipa in
bastar district of chhatisgarh, andaman.
1.2 INTENSIVE SUBSISTENCE FARMING
● Practiced in areas of high population, high pressure on land.
● Labour intensive farming, high doses of biochemical inputs, irrigation for higher
production.
● ‘Right of inheritence’ leading to division of land - land holding size uneconomical -
Farmers continue to take maximum output out of land - alternative sources unavailable
● Enourmous pressure on land.
1.3 COMMERCIAL FARMING
● Done with the objective of selling for earning profit.
● High doses of modern inputs - high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, checmical fertilizers,
pesticies, insecticides - for more productivity.
● Degree of commercialisation varies among regions - in Haryana, Punjab, rice is
commercial crop, in odisha, it is subsistence crop.
● Plantation - Single crop grown on large area - cover large tracts of land, using capital
intensive inputs - Produce used as raw material.
● Has interface of agriculture, industry.
● Plantation crops - Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Sugarcane, Banana, Etc.
● Tea in assam, bengal, karnataka.
● Require well developed transport, communication network connecting plantation areas,
processing industries, markets.
2 - CROPPING PATTERNS
● 3 major cropping seasons - Rabi (Winter), Kharif (Monsoon), Zaid (Summer).
● Rabi Crops:
○ Sown in winter, october-december
○ Harvested in summer, April-June
○ Important crops - Wheat, Barley, Peas, Gram, Mustard
○ Grown in large parts of India - Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, J&K, Uttarakhand, UP,
North Rajasthan, etc.
○ Depends on Availability of rainfall in winter months due to temperate cyclones.
○ Green revolution played part in success in Panjab, Haryana, West UP, North
Rajasthan.
● Kharif crops:
○ Grown in onset of monsoon.
○ Harvested in September-October.
○ Important crops - paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, arhar(tur), Moong, Urad, Cotton,
Jute, Groundnut, Soyabean.
○ Important rice growing regions - Assam, Bengal, coastal Odisha, tamil Nadu,
Kerala, coastal Mahrashtra.
○ Assam - 3 paddy crops in a year - Aus, Aman, Boro.
● Zaid crops-
○ In between Rabi, Kharif crops.
○ Important crops - Watermelon, Muskmelon, Cucumber, Vegetables, Fodder crops.
○ Sugarcane takes alost year to grow.
3- MAJOR CROPS
● Major crops grown in India - Rice, Wheat, Millets, Pulses, Tea, Coffee, Sugarcane, Oil
seeds, Cotton, Jute, etc.
3.1 - RICE
● Staple food of majority people in India.
● India second largest producer of rice behind China.
● Kharif crop - Requires high temperature (above 25°C), High humidity, annual rainfall >
100cm.
● In areas of less rainfall, grows with help of irrigation.
● Grown in plains of north, North-east, coastal areas, deltaic regions.
● Development of dense canal, tubewell systems made rice growth possible in less rainfall
areas - Punjab, Haryana, West UP, North Rajasthan.
3.2 - WHEAT
● Second most important cereal crop.
● Main food crop in north, north-west.
● Requires cool growing seasion, bright sunshine at time of ripening, 50-75cm rainfall
evenly distributed across growing season.
● 2 important growing zones - Ganga-Satluj plains (Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, North
Rajasthan), Deccan black soil region (Madhya Pradesh).
3.3 - MILLETS
● Jowar, Bajra, Ragi most important millets.
● Known as coarse grains, very high nutritional value.
● Jowar 3rd most important food crop with respect to area, production.
● Rain-fed crop mostly grown in moist areas, hardly needs irrigation.
● Major jowar states - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, Madhya Pradesh.
● Bajra grows on sandy soils, shallow black soil.
● Major bajra states - Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana.
● Ragi grows on red, black, loamy, shallow black soils
● Major ragi states - Karnataka, Tamil nadu, himachal, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh.
3.4 - MAIZE
● Crop used as food, fodder.
● Kharif Crop - Requires high temperature between 21-27°C.
● Grows well on Old alluvial soil.
● States like Bihar - grown in Rabi season also.
● Major maize states - Karnataka, Madhya pradesh, UP, Bihar, Andhra, Telangana
3.5 - PULSES
● India largest producer, consumer of pulses.
● Major sources of protein in vegetarian diet.
● Major pulse crops - Arhar(tur), urad, moong, masur, peas, gram.
● Pulses need less moisture, survive even in dry conditions.
● Leguminous crops - help restore soil fertility, fixate nitrogen from air (except arhar)
4 - FOOD CROPS OTHER THAN GRAINS
4.1 - SUGARCANE
● Tropical, subtropical crop - grows well in hot, humid climate, high temperature between
21-27°C, annual rainfall 75-100cm, irrigation required in areas of low rainfall.
● Grown on variety of soils, needs manual labour from sowing to harvesting.
● India second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil.
● Main source of sugar, gur(jaggery), Khandsar, Molasses.
● Major sugarcane producing states - UP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil nadu, Andhra,
Telangana, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana.
4.2 - OIL SEEDS
● India second largest producer of groundnut after china, third largest producer of rapeseed
after Canada, China.
● Different oil seeds cover around 12% of total cropped area of country.
● Main oil seeds - groundnut, mustard, coconut, soyabean, castor seeds, cotton seeds,
linseed, sunflower seeds.
● Most are edible, used as cooking mediums.
● Some used as raw material in production of soap, cosmetics, ointments.
● Groundnut - Kharif Crop - Accounts for half of major oilseeds in India.
● Groundnut area - Gujarat largest producer, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu.
● Linseed, Mustard - rabi crops.
● Sesamun - kharif crop in north, rabi in south.
● Castor - rabi and kharif crop
4.3 - TEA
● Tea - plantation crop.
● important beverage crop introduced by British.
● Most of tea plantations owned by Indians.
● Tea plantations grow in tropical, subtropical climates with deep, fertile, well-drained soil
rich in humus, organic matter.
● Tea requires warm, most frost-free climate throughout year.
● Frequent showers evenly distributed over year ensures continuous growing of tender
leaves.
● Requires cheap, abundant, skilled labour.
● Tea processed within tea gardens to restore freshness.
● Major tea producing areas - Assam, Hills of Darjeeling, Jalaipur districts of Bengal, Tamil
Nadu, Kerala, Himachal uttarakhand, andhra, tripura.
● India second largest producer after China.
● Tea height kept at 4ft, regularly pruned - easily picked, fresh leaves, buds
4.4 - COFFEE
● Indian coffee known in world for quality - Arabica variety initially brought from Yemen
produced in the country.
● Initially cultivated in Baba Budan Hills of karnataka, still confined to karnataka, Kerela,
Tamil Nadu
4.5 - HORTICULTURE CROPS
● India second largest producer of fruits, vegetables after China.
● India producer of tropical, temperate fruits.
● Mangoes - Maharashtra, Andhra, Telangana, UP, Bengal.
● Oranges - Nagpur, Meghalya.
● Banana - Kerala, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu.
● Lichi, Guava - UP, Bihar.
● Pineapples - Meghalya.
● grapes - Andhra, Telangana, maharashtra.
● Apples, Pears, Apricots, Walnuts - J&K, Himachal.
● Important producer of Pea, Cauliflower, Onion, Cabbage, tomato, brinjal, potato.
5 - NON-FOOD CROPS
5.1 - FIBRE CROPS
● 4 major fibre crops - Cotton, Jute, Hemp, Natural silk.
● Cotton, Jute, hemp from plants grown in soil.
● Natural Silk obtained from cocoons of silkworms - feed on green leaves like mulberry.
● Sericulture - rearing of silk worms for production of silk fibre.
5.2 - COTTON
● India believed to be original home of cotton plant.
● India second largest producer of cotton behind China.
● Cotton - main raw material for cotton textile industry.
● Grows on drier parts of black cotton soil.
● Kharif crop -Requires high temperature, light rainfall or irrigation, 210 frost-free days,
bright sunlight.
● Requires 6-8 months to mature.
● Major cotton states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra,
Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, UP
5.3 - JUTE
● Known as golden fibre.
● Grown on well-drained fertile soils in floodplains - soils renewed each year.
● Require high temperature.
● Major jute states - Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Meghalya.
● Used for making gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets, artefacts.
● Due to high cost, losing market to synthetic fibre.
5.4 - RUBBER
● Equatorial crop - tropical, subtropical under certain conditions.
● Requires moist, humid climate, rainfall > 200cm, high temperature.
● Industry raw material.
● Rubber states - Kerala, Tamil nadu, Karnataka, Andaman, Meghalya.
6 - TECHNOLOGICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
● Sustained use of land without compatible techno-instutional changes hinder pace of
agricultural development.
● Despire development of irrigation facilities farmers depend on monsoon, natural fertility.
● For growing population, this is problem - agriculture provides livelihood for >60% of
population.
● It needs technological, instututional reforms.
● Collectivisation, consolidation of holdings, cooperation, abolition of zamindari, etc given
priority tobring instutional reforms.
● Land reform main focus of first 5-year plan.
● Right to inheritance already lead to fragmentation of land holdings necessitating
consolidation of holdings.
● Laws of land reforms enacted, implementation lacking.
● Govt embarked upon reforms in 60’s, 70’s
● Green revolution based on package technology, White revolution (operation flood) -
strategies for improving agriculture - but led to development in few certain areas.
● 80’s, 90’s, comprehensive land development programme initiated - included technical,
institutional reforms - provision for crop insurance against drought, flood, cyclone, fire,
disease, establishment of grameen banks, cooperatives, banks providing loans.
● Kisaan Credit Card (KCC), Personal Accident Insurance (PAIS) - schemes by Govt.
● Special weather bulletins, Agricultural programmes introduced on radio, TV.
● Government announces MSP, remunerative, procurment prices for important crops to
check exploitation of farmers by speculators, middlemen.
