Agriculture

 India - 2/3rd population - engaged in agriculture

 Primary activity: produces food & raw material
 Some agricultural products like tea, coffee, spices, etc. are also exported.

TYPES OF FARMING

Primitive Subsistence Farming

 Practised on small patches of land

 Primitive tools like hoe, dao and digging sticks
 Family/community labour
 Depends upon monsoon, natural fertility of the soil and environmental conditions
 ‘Slash and burn’
 Clear a patch of land - produce cereals & other food crops
 Soil fertility decreases- shift and clear a fresh patch of land
 Nature replenishes the fertility of the soil through natural processes
 Low land productivity - no fertilisers or other modern inputs
 Jhumming in north-eastern states like Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland
 Pamlou in Manipur
 Dipa in Bastar, Chhattishgarh & Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Intensive Subsistence Farming

 Areas of high population pressure

 Labour- intensive farming
 High doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation for higher production
 ‘Right of inheritance’ - division of land - land-holding size uneconomical
 Farmers - maximum output - limited land
 Thus, enormous pressure

Commercial Farming

 Higher doses of (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides - higher productivity
 The degree of commercialisation varies from region to region
 Eg: Rice - commercial crop in Haryana and Punjab, but in Odisha, - subsistence

Plantation

 Type of commercial farming

 A single crop is grown on a large area
 Interface of agriculture and industry
 Cover large tracts of land, capital intensive inputs, migrant labourers
 All the produce - raw material
 In India, tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana, etc.
 Production for the market, a well- developed network of transport and communication
connecting the plantation areas, processing industries and markets plays an important role in
the development of plantations
CROPPING PATTERN

Rabi

 Sown in winter from October to December

 Harvested in summer from April to June
 Wheat, barley, peas, gram and mustard
 North and north-western parts such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh - important - production of wheat and other rabi crops
 The success of the green revolution - an important factor

Kharif

 Grown with the onset of monsoon

 Harvested in September-October
 Paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut and soyabean
 Most important rice- growing regions are Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Odisha, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, particularly the (Konkan coast) along
with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
 Paddy - important crop of Punjab and Haryana
 In Assam, West Bengal and Odisha, three crops of paddy - Aus, Aman and Boro

Zaid

 Between rabi & kharif - short season during the summer months - Zaid season
 Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops
 Sugarcane takes almost a year to grow

FOOD CROPS

Rice

 Staple food crop

 India - 2nd largest producer after China
 Kharif crop, high temperature (above 25°C), high humidity, annual rainfall above 100 cm
 Areas of less rainfall, help of irrigation
 Grown in the plains of north and north-eastern India, coastal areas and the deltaic regions
 Development canal irrigation and tubewells - possible - areas of less rainfall such as Punjab,
Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan.

Wheat

 Second most important cereal crop

 Main food crop, in north and north-western part
 Rabi crop, cool growing season, bright sunshine at the time of ripening
 50 to 75 cm of annual rainfall
 Two important wheat-growing zones in the country – the Ganga-Satluj plains in the north-west
and black soil region of the Deccan
 Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan
Millets- Coarse grains, very high nutritional value

Ragi

 rich in iron, calcium, other micro nutrients and roughage

 Crop of dry regions
 Grows well on red, black, sandy, loamy and shallow black soils
 Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Jharkhand and Arunachal
Pradesh.

Jowar

 3rd most important food crop

 Rain-fed, mostly grown in the moist areas, hardly needs irrigation
 Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh

Bajra

 sandy soils and shallow black soil

 Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana

Maize

 Food and fodder

 Kharif crop, temperature between 21°C to 27°C, old alluvial soil
 In some states like Bihar - grown in rabi
 Use of modern inputs - increasing production of maize
 Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Pulses

 India - largest producer & consumer - in the world

 Major source of protein
 Major pulses: tur (arhar), urad, moong, masur, peas and gram
 Pulses need less moisture and survive even in dry conditions
 Leguminous crops - help in restoring soil fertility (except arhar)
 Grown in rotation with other crops
 Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka

Sugarcane

 Tropical as well as a subtropical crop

 Hot and humid climate, 21°C to 27°C, annual rainfall between 75cm. and 100cm
 Irrigation in regions of low rainfall
 Grown on a variety of soils
 Needs manual labour from sowing to harvesting
 Second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil
 Main source of sugar, gur (jaggary), khandsari and molasses
 Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Punjab
and Haryana
OIL SEEDS

 In 2018 India was the second largest producer of groundnut in the world after China
 Rapeseed production, India - third largest producer after Canada and China in 2018
 Different oil seeds are grown covering approximately 12 percent area of the country
 Main oil-seeds: groundnut, mustard, coconut, sesamum (til), soyabean, castor seeds, cotton
seeds, linseed and sunflower
 Edible, used as cooking mediums
 Some of these - raw material - soap, cosmetics and ointments

Groundnut

 Kharif crop
 Half of the major oilseeds produced
 Gujarat - largest producer of groundnut followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu in 2019–20

 Linseed and mustard are rabi crops

 Sesamum is a kharif crop in north and rabi crop in south India
 Castor seed is grown both as rabi and kharif crop

Tea

 Plantation agriculture
 Beverage crop introduced by the British
 Most of the tea plantations - owned by Indians
 Tropical and sub-tropical climates, deep and fertile well-drained soil, rich in humus and organic
matter
 Warm and moist frost-free climate through the year
 Frequent showers evenly distributed
 Labour-intensive industry: requires abundant, cheap and skilled labour
 Assam, hills of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
 Apart from these, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura
 In 2018 India - 2nd largest after China

Coffee

 Arabica - brought from Yemen - produced

 Initial cultivation - Baba Budan Hills
 Today - Nilgiri in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu

Horticulture Crops

 2018, India - 2nd largest producer of fruits and vegetables after China
 Producer of tropical as well as temperate fruits
 Mangoes of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
 Oranges of Nagpur and Cherrapunjee (Meghalaya)
 Bananas of Kerala, Mizoram, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu
 Lichi and guava of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
 Pineapples of Meghalaya
 Grapes of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra
 Apples, pears, apricots and walnuts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh
 India is an important producer of pea, cauliflower, onion, cabbage, tomato, brinjal and potato.
NON-FOOD CROPS

Rubber

 Equatorial crop, but under special conditions - grown in tropical and sub-tropical areas
 Moist and humid climate, rainfall of more than 200 cm., temperature above 25°C
 important industrial raw material
 Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andaman and Nicobar islands and Garo hills of Meghalaya

FIBRE CROPS

 Cotton, jute, hemp and natural silk

 The first three - from the crops grown in the soil, the latter - cocoons of the silkworms - mulberry
 Rearing of silk worms - sericulture.

Cotton

 India - original home

 Cotton - main raw materials for cotton textile industry
 2017, India 2nd largest producer after China
 Drier parts of the black cotton soil of the Deccan plateau
 High temperature, light rainfall or irrigation, 210 frost-free days, bright sun-shine
 Kharif crop, 6 to 8 months to mature
 Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu,
Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh

Jute

 Golden fibre
 Well-drained fertile soils, high temperature
 West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Meghalaya
 Used in making gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and other artefacts

TECHNOLOGICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS

 Sustained uses of land without compatible techno-institutional - hindered the pace of

agricultural development
 Most farmers - still depend upon monsoon and natural fertility
 Need for reforming agriculture
 Collectivisation, consolidation of holdings, cooperation and abolition of zamindari, etc. - priority
 The right of inheritance - fragmentation
 Introducing agricultural reforms to improve Indian agriculture - 1960s and 1970s (The Green
Revolution, the White Revolution)
 Concentration in few selected areas
 1980s and 1990s, a comprehensive land development programme including institutional and
technical reforms
 Provision for crop insurance against drought, flood, cyclone, fire and disease
 Establishment of Grameen banks, cooperative societies and banks for loans at lower rates of
interest
 Kissan Credit Card (KCC), Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS)
 Special weather bulletins and agricultural programmes on the radio and television
 Minimum support price, remunerative and procurement prices to check exploitation
BHOODAN-GRAMDAN

 Vinoba Bhave - Gandhi's spiritual heir

 One of the votaries of Gandhi’s concept of gram swarajya
 Pochampalli in Andhra Pradesh, some poor landless villagers demanded some land
 Assured them to talk to the Government - cooperative farming
 Shri Ram Chandra Reddy - offered 80 acres of land among 80 land-less villagers
 This act was known as ‘Bhoodan’
 Some zamindars, owners of many villages offered to distribute some villages
 It was known as Gramdan
 Blood-less Revolution.