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Crops and cropping patterns in India - Part 2
5.0 World crop production - trends
Cereals, which include wheat, rice, barley, maize, rye, oats and millet, make up the majority of the production of the crop sector. They continue to be the most important food source for human consumption. Yet external factors, such as rising incomes and urbanization, are causing diets to shift towards diets that are higher in protein, fats and sugar. In addition, livestock and biofuel production have and will most likely grow at a faster rate than crop production. This is causing a shift away from crops, like wheat and rice, towards coarse grains and oilseeds to meet demands for food, feed and biofuel. Overall, cereals include wheat, rice paddy, barley, maize, popcorn, rye, oats, millets, sorghum, buckwheat, quinoa, fonio, triticale, canary seed, mixed grain and cereals nes..
Crop yields can vary widely across regions. Here is a graph to explain it.
World trade in agriculture is shown below.
A comparison of India with World yields is shown below.
Since 1970-71, trend growth in Indian agriculture has been approximately 3%, above that in population but well below that in the entire economy consisting of agriculture, industry and services. Hence, while per-capita agricultural output has seen a steady rise, the share of agriculture in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen. The rise in per-capita agricultural production has gone a long way toward easing pressure on meeting food and nutrition security of the country. Unfortunately, growth in agricultural output is characterised by fluctuations; each high growth period is followed by a phase of low growth. This cyclical pattern has reflected itself in annual growth rates of approximately 3% in the 10th Plan, 4% in the 11th Plan and just 1.7% during the first three years of the 12th Plan till start of 2016. Specific sub sectors, most notably crop segment, are subject to occasional severe negative shocks leading to serious distress.
Crop production in the country is dominated by cultivation of paddy in Kharif and wheat in Rabi seasons. These two crops cover about 38 per cent of gross cropped area in the country. Cereals including coarse cereals occupy more than half of the total land under cultivation.
Some trends are clear -
- Total area under foodgrain cultivation = 63.6 % of which cereals 50.9 % and pulses 12.5 %
- Total area under oilseeds cultivation = 13.9 %
The most important agricultural states are Uttar Pradesh (largest), Punjab and Haryana (traditional major contributors) and Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal (emerging as significant producers). UP accounts for the largest share by area as well as production. It accounts for almost one-fifth of the country's food grain production.
The table below makes it clear -
In yields and proportion of area irrigated, Punjab ranks the first and Haryana the second in terms of both variables. Among larger producers, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra show relatively low yields. Rajasthan and Maharashtra also exhibit low proportions of area under irrigation. In Bihar, the proportion of area irrigated is above the national average but not the yield. This is very likely due to high frequency of floods that occasionally destroy standing crops.
A global comparison of Rice yield and production figures is given in the following table.
A global comparison of Wheat yield and production figures is given in the following table.
India edges out the United States in yield per hectare in wheat. China is the only major producer of wheat that has far higher productivity than India. France, Germany and the United Kingdom exhibit super-high productivity in wheat but their productions are are significantly smaller than those of India and China.
5.2 The surprising case for Bt Cotton
A surprising analysis is the yield for cotton crop, which is the only tested crop using GM seeds.
The peak yield prior to the introduction of Bt cotton, reached in 1996-97, was 265 kg/ha. But the yields declined steadily thereafter, reaching 186 kg/ha in 2001-02. Adoption of Bt cotton in India started in year 2002 and the area under it expanded rapidly reaching 11.6 million hectares or 95% of the total cotton acreage by 2014. Yields rose continuously and touched a new peak of 532 kg/ha in 2013-14. Cotton farmers in the three largest cotton-growing states, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat in that order, experienced large gains. Between 2001 and 2010, Bt cotton helped reduce the use of insecticides by more than fifty per cent. With the trend growth rate under the conventional varieties in the prior decades being much lower, it is inconceivable that yields under those varieties could have reached as high as 499 kg/ha.
The success of Bt cotton in India and many more GM seeds elsewhere in the world testifies to the potential of GM technology in giving a major boost to productivity in agriculture. But, GM seeds and technologies are controversial in India and elsewhere (like Europe). More than 13 years have passed since the introduction of Bt cotton and no scientific evidence of detrimental effects on either Bt cotton users or other crops located in the vicinity of Bt cotton farmers has been produced. But India has not introduced any new GM seeds. In 2010, after all of the relevant official bodies had cleared Bt brinjal, the environment ministry blocked its introduction. Many traditional varieties of brinjal require the application of pesticides every third or fourth day, which results in significant pesticide residue on it when it reaches the consumer. Bt Brinjal may have considerably alleviated this problem by mitigating the need for pesticide use.
6.0 Crops and cropping patterns
6.1 Crop Classification System
The FAO has designed a crop classification system, as elaborated below.
There are 9 groups of crops, and each crop can be either permanent or temporary.
- Cereals
- Vegetables and Melons
- Fruits and nuts
- Oilseed crops
- Root/tuber crops with high starch content
- Beverage and spice crops
- Leguminous crops
- Sugar crops
- Other crops
The detailed table makes it clear.
Cereals and Pseudo-cereals - These are grain crops. These are necessarily grasses, which refers to monocot plants under the family Poaceae or Gramineae. For example: Rice, Wheat, Durum wheat, Corn, Barley, Millets etc. The mature grains are harvested for food or animal feed. They are also processed into products like starch, malt, biofuel and sweetener. Cereals are annual plants, but research is going into developing perennial plants! Pseudo-cereals are not grasses but used for staple grain purposes. For example: Quinoa, Buckwheat, Amaranth etc.
6.2 Cropping in Indian states
To begin with, here is the data for various top agricultural states of India.
Here is another image that puts things in perspective for us.
6.3 Main agricultural seasons of India
There are three main seasons for growing crops in India.
- 1.The Kharif Season (Kharif = autumn, in Arabic; word introduced by Mughals in India) These are the summer or monsoon crops grown in South Asia (India, Pakistan etc.) Crops are sown at the beginning of south-west monsoon and harvested at the end of the south-west monsoon. Hence, in India, it starts in May to July, and ends latest in January. But most commonly, the duration is considered June to October. Sowing Season: May to July Harvesting Season: September to October Important Crops: Millets (Jowar and Bajra), Rice (paddy and deepwater), Maize (corn), Mung bean (green gram), Urab bean (black gram), Guar, Pea, Peanut, Cotton, Groundnut, Jute, Hemp, Tobacco etc.
- The Rabi Season (Rabi = spring, in Arabic; word introduced by Mughals in India) Rabi crops are agricultural crops sown in winter and harvested in the spring in South Asia (India, Pakistan etc.). These crops need a cool climate during their growth period but warm climate during the germination of seed and maturation. The Rabi season starts with the onset of the north-east monsoon in October. So, sowing is in mid-November (when monsoons are over), and harvesting in April/May. Sowing Season: October to December Harvesting Season: February to April Important Crops: Cereals (Wheat, Oat, Barley, Maize), Seed Plants (Sesame, Coriander, Mustard, Fenugreek, Isabgol), Vegetables (Pea, Onion, Tomato, Potato, Chickpea) etc. Many crops are cultivated in both Kharif and Rabi seasons. The agriculture crops produced in India are seasonal in nature and highly dependent on these two monsoons.
- The Zaid Season (Zaid = growth, progress) In between the Rabi and the Kharif seasons, many crops are grown that do not need rains, but can use irrigation. Usually they are grown in summers, in a season called the "Zayad crop season". These crops need a warm, dry weather and longer days for flowering. Sowing Season: February to March Harvesting Season: April-May Important Crops: Watermelon, Muskmelon, Cucumber, Sugarcane & other vegetables
6.4 Major crops in India
The crops can be classified in several ways, and one of the popular ones is dividing them into three major groups - Food crops, Cash crops (non Food crops) and Plantation crops.
6.4.1 Food crops
These are crops grown for direct human or animal consumption. Prime examples are Rice, Wheat, Millets, Maize and Pulses. They can be marketed and sold too, and then they become cash crops. Many of these are traded globally. Let us look at them one by one.
1. Rice (Kharif crop)
Growth requirements -
High heat and high humidity, 100 - 200cms of rainfall, grown on variety of soils - acidic / alkaline but fields must retain water
Regions grown -
Throughout India - except higher parts of Himalayas and desert areas. In North only one crop per annum as winters are too cold; In south and Eastern Areas two to three crops in a year.
Production and trade -
India is second largest producer and consumer. Main states: West Bengal, Punjab, UP and AP
Notes -
Rice is India's staple food. India is one of the world's largest producers of white rice and brown rice. Next to China, India is a leading producer of rice in the world. Rice is a tropical plant, which flourishes comfortably in hot and humid climate. Hence it is mainly grown in rain fed areas that receive heavy annual rainfall. So it is fundamentally a kharif crop in India. It demands temperature of around 25 degree Celsius and above and rainfall of more than 100 cm. Rice is also grown through irrigation in those areas that receives comparatively less rainfall. In some of the states like West Bengal, Assam and Orissa two crops of rice are raised in a year. Winter season in the north western India are extremely cold for rice. Rice is considered as the master crop of coastal India and in some regions of the eastern India where during the summer monsoon rainy season both high temperature and heavy rainfall provide ideal conditions for the cultivation of rice. Almost all parts of India are suitable for raising rice during the summer season provided that the water is available. Thus, rice is also raised even in those parts of western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana where low level areas are waterlogged during the summer monsoon rainy season.
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