Tag: agriculture in india - ii : food crops

Cotton is not a food crop and Maize ,Bajra ,Paddy ,Wheat are food crop.

Cotton is not a food grain and Wheat ,Rice,Maize ,Jowar are food grain.

Jowar is the third most important food crop with respect to area and production. It is a rain-fed crop mostly grown in the moist areas which hardly needs irrigation. Maharashtra is the largest producer of jowar followed by Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. 

Our country is the second largest producer of rice in the world after China. It is a kharif crop which requires high temperature, (above 25°C) and high humidity with annual rainfall above 100 cm. 

• Agriculture depends on growing periods that are seasonal in itself. India has three cropping seasons — rabi, kharif and zaid. 
  
• Rabi crops are sown in winter from October to December and harvested in summer from April to June. 
  
• Kharif crops are grown with the onset of monsoon in different parts of the country and these are harvested in September-October. 
  
• In between the rabi and the kharif seasons, there is a short season during the summer months known as the Zaid season.
  

Rice is the most important staple food crop of India, which feeds more than half of our population. It accounts for one-third production of foodgrains in the country. Rice, an indigenous crop is grown all over the country with highest concentration in North-eastern and southern parts of the country.

Soybean is a light coloured oval bean raised as a kharif crop. It is sown in the month of June. It has high protein content. The most important soybean producing area lies in Madhya Pradesh.

Basmati rice is long, slender aromatic rice basically from Indian subcontinent. During 2015-16, export of non-basmati and Basmati rice has been assumed to be 8.0 million and 4 million tonnes respectively.

Ragi (Finger millet) is very rich in iron, calcium and other micronutrients and roughage.

India contributes 22% of rice production in the world. Our country is the second largest producer of rice in the world after China.