Cereals

Cereals occupy about 54 per cent of the total cropped area in India. The country produces roughly 11 per cent of the world's cereals and ranks third in global production, after China and the USA. Indian cereals are classified into two broad groups: fine grains (rice and wheat) and coarse grains (jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, etc.).

Rice

Rice is the staple food for the overwhelming majority of India's population. Though it is considered a crop of tropical humid areas, it has many varieties that are grown in different agro-climatic regions. Rice is successfully cultivated from sea level up to about 2,000 metres altitude, and from the humid areas of eastern India to the dry but irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and northern Rajasthan.

In southern states and West Bengal, climatic conditions allow the cultivation of two or three crops of rice in an agricultural year. In West Bengal, farmers grow three crops called 'aus', 'aman' and 'boro'. In the Himalayas and northwestern parts of the country, rice is grown only as a kharif crop during the southwest monsoon season.

India contributes 22.07 per cent of the world's rice production and ranked second after China in 2018. About one-fourth of the total cropped area in the country is under rice cultivation. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are the leading rice-producing states.

The yield level of rice is high in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Kerala. In the first four of these states, almost the entire land under rice cultivation is irrigated. Punjab and Haryana are not traditional rice-growing areas — rice cultivation there was introduced in the 1970s following the Green Revolution. Genetically improved varieties of seed, relatively high usage of fertilisers and pesticides, and lower levels of susceptibility of the crop to pests due to dry climatic conditions are responsible for the higher yield in this region. In contrast, the yield of rice is very low in the rainfed areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Wheat

Wheat is the second most important cereal crop in India after rice. India produces about 12.8 per cent of the total wheat production of the world (2017). It is primarily a crop of the temperate zone, so its cultivation in India is done during winter — the rabi season. About 85 per cent of the total area under this crop is concentrated in the north and central regions of the country: the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Malwa Plateau and the Himalayas up to 2,700 metres altitude.

Being a rabi crop, wheat is mostly grown under irrigated conditions. However, it is a rainfed crop in the Himalayan highlands and parts of the Malwa plateau in Madhya Pradesh. About 14 per cent of the total cropped area in the country is under wheat cultivation. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are the leading wheat-producing states.

The yield level of wheat is very high (above 4,000 kg per hectare) in Punjab and Haryana, while Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar have moderate yields. States like Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, which grow wheat under rainfed conditions, have low yields.

Jowar (Sorghum)

The coarse cereals together occupy about 16.50 per cent of the total cropped area in the country. Among these, jowar alone accounts for about 5.3 per cent of the total cropped area. It is the main food crop in the semi-arid areas of central and southern India. Maharashtra alone produces more than half of the total jowar production of the country. Other leading producer states are Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Jowar is sown in both kharif and rabi seasons in the southern states. But in northern India, it is a kharif crop and is mostly grown as a fodder crop. South of the Vindhyachal range, it is a rainfed crop and its yield level is very low.

Bajra

Bajra is sown in hot and dry climatic conditions in the northwestern and western parts of the country. It is a hardy crop that resists frequent dry spells and drought in this region. It is cultivated alone as well as part of mixed cropping. This coarse cereal occupies about 5.2 per cent of the total cropped area in the country. …