Agriculture in Maharashtra

Agriculture contributes only a modest share of Maharashtra's income, but it remains the livelihood of a very large part of the population, so its problems are central to the state's development.

Cropping pattern. Maharashtra grows a wide range of crops. Its food crops include jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), rice, wheat and pulses; its commercial (cash) crops are especially important and include sugarcane (the base of the co-operative sugar industry), cotton (the great crop of the Vidarbha and Khandesh belts), oilseeds, and a large horticulture output — Maharashtra is a leading producer of fruits such as grapes (Nashik), oranges (Nagpur), bananas, pomegranates and Alphonso mangoes (Konkan), and of onions.

Irrigation — the decisive constraint. A defining feature of Maharashtra's agriculture is that a large part of it is rain-fed and only a relatively small share of cropped area is irrigated, which is low compared with several other states. Much of the state lies on the Deccan plateau with erratic rainfall, so agriculture is highly vulnerable to the monsoon and to drought, particularly in the interior. This is why irrigation, water conservation and watershed development are constant priorities of state policy.

Regional disparity in farming. Agricultural prosperity is very unevenly spread. The Western Maharashtra belt (around Pune, Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Ahmednagar) has assured irrigation from rivers and dams and a thriving sugar economy, whereas the rain-fed cotton and soybean tracts of Vidarbha and Marathwada are drought-prone and have seen acute agrarian distress, including farmer indebtedness and, tragically, farmer suicides. This contrast is the agricultural face of the state's broader regional imbalance. …