Other Crops

Sugarcane, tea, and coffee are the other important crops grown in India. Each has distinct climatic requirements, growing regions, and economic significance.

Sugarcane is a tropical crop. Under rainfed conditions, it grows in sub-humid and humid climates, but in India it is largely an irrigated crop. The Indo-Gangetic plain, especially Uttar Pradesh, is the main concentration of sugarcane cultivation. In western India, the growing area spreads over Maharashtra and Gujarat. In southern India, it is cultivated in the irrigated tracts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.

India was the second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil in 2018, accounting for about 19.7 per cent of world production. Yet sugarcane occupies only 2.4 per cent of the total cropped area in the country. Uttar Pradesh produces about two-fifths of India's sugarcane. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are other leading producers, and in these states the yield level of sugarcane is high. In northern India, its yield is low.

Tea is a plantation crop used as a beverage. Black tea leaves are fermented, whereas green tea leaves are unfermented. Tea leaves have a rich content of caffeine and tannin. It is an indigenous crop of the hills in northern China. Tea is grown over the undulating topography of hilly areas and well-drained soils in humid and sub-humid tropics and sub-tropics.

In India, tea plantation started in the 1840s in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, which still is a major tea-growing area. Later, its plantation was introduced in the sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, and Cooch Behar districts). Tea is also cultivated on the lower slopes of the Nilgiri hills. India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China (2018). Assam accounts for about 53.2 per cent of the total cropped area and contributes more than half of the total production of tea in the country. West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are the other leading producers. …