Agriculture

Types of farming, the rabi, kharif and zaid seasons, the major crops and the conditions they need, and reforms to help farmers.

Key ideas

Primitive subsistence farming uses simple tools on small plots, as in slash-and-burn (jhumming in the north-east).
Intensive subsistence farming uses much labour on small plots; commercial farming uses high inputs to grow for sale; plantation farming grows one crop on a large estate.
Rabi crops are sown in winter and harvested in spring, kharif crops are sown with the monsoon and harvested in autumn, and zaid crops grow in the short summer between.
Rice needs over 25 °C, high humidity and over 100 cm of rain; wheat needs a cool growing season and 50–75 cm of rain.
Cotton grows in the black soil of the Deccan with about 210 frost-free days; jute is the golden fibre; tea grows in Assam and around Darjeeling.
India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses.
Reforms include land reforms, the Green and White Revolutions, crop insurance, cheap loans and minimum support prices.

Remember

Rabi crops	wheat, mustard, gram
Kharif crops	rice, maize, cotton
Zaid crops	watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables, fodder
Rubber	over 200 cm of rain
Green Revolution	1960s: high-yielding seeds, fertilisers and irrigation
Bhoodan	Vinoba Bhave’s call for landowners to give land to the landless

Watch out

Swapping rabi (sown in winter) and kharif (sown with the monsoon) crops.
Giving wheat heavy rain: it needs only 50–75 cm.
Adding a percentage rise wrongly: a 50% rise on 310 is 310 + 155 = 465.

Worked example

Suppose a farm grows 310 quintals of wheat. With better seeds and irrigation, output rises by 50%. What is the new output, and which revolution did this in the 1960s?

Working: 310 + 50%

Answer: 465 quintals; the Green Revolution