Agriculture in India – Geography – UGC NET – Notes

Introduction

• Agriculture is made up of two words –‘Ager’ + ‘culture’. ‘Ager’ means soil and ‘culture’ means cultivation.
• Agriculture is defined as the art, science and business of producing crops and livestock for economic purpose.
• Livestock, fisheries poultry comes under the allied agricultural activities.
• Importance of Agriculture in India:
  • Two third of the livelihood of the Indian population is directly or indirectly dependent on Agriculture.
  • 55% of the labour force is directly or indirectly involved in Agriculture.
  • Agricultural sector accounts for 15% of the export earnings and 14%-17% of India’s GDP.
  • Agricultural sector provides raw material for various industries such as textiles, sugar, flour mills, Jute, Apparel etc.
  • Flourishing Agricultural production in India is the main factor behind the food security of the large Indian population.
• Allied sectors in agriculture involve- horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy, fishing etc.
• Agriculture and allied sector plays vital role in providing nutrition and livelihood to the huge population in India.

Salient Features of Indian Agriculture

• Subsistence agriculture: The type of agriculture in India is mostly Subsistence agriculture. In Subsistence agriculture the agricultural produce is for self-consumption only, there is no surplus production to sell in the market.
• Commercial agriculture: Large-scale commercial agriculture is also practiced in India, such as tea plantation in Assam, coffee in Karnataka, coconut in Kerala, etc. Commercial Agriculture is the agricultural practice where large agricultural produce is sold in the market by the firms for making profits.
  • Since the land resource in India is limited the pressure of increasing population on agriculture is increasing day by day.
• Mechanization: After Green Revolution, there has been an increasing trend in the use of machines in farm operations. This has led to the mechanization of Indian agriculture. Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, River valleys of Andhra, and Tamil Nadu are major agriculturally mechanized areas in India.
• Monsoon dependent: Due to lack of irrigation facilities Two-third of Indian agriculture is dependent on monsoon rains.
• Variety of crops: Due to the presence of different types of topography, diverse soil (like alluvial, red, black cotton soil, etc), and different types of climate, India is blessed with the production of different varieties of crops in different regions. For eg., hilly areas are suitable for tea cultivation, plains for rice cultivation
• Predominance of food crops: In order to feed a large population and predominance of subsistence agriculture, food crops are mainly grown in order to keep with the food security demands of the huge Indian population.
• There are basically three cropping seasonal patterns in India namely Kharif, Rabi, and Zaid.

Cropping Seasons in India

• There are three distinct crop seasons in the northern and interior parts of the country, namely Kharif, rabi, and Zaid.
  • The Kharif season: The crops which are grown in the Kharif season require a good amount of water, thus the sowing of Kharif crops largely coincides with the onset of the Southwest Monsoon.
  • The Rabi season: The sowing of rabi crops begins with the onset of winter in October- November and the harvesting is done in March-April. The celebration of the festival Holi can be related to a good harvest in the month of March- April.
  • The Zaid season: It is a short duration summer cropping season beginning after harvesting of rabi crops, the cultivation of watermelons, cucumbers, vegetables, and fodder crops during this season is done on irrigated lands.
• However, this type of distinction in the cropping season does not exist in southern parts of the country due to high temperature. The same crop can be grown thrice a year.

Note: There are some crops that are grown in both Kharif and Rabi seasons like Maize, Jowar and Groundnut.