Types of farming
Primitive subsistence farming
Done on small patches with simple tools like a hoe and digging stick. Families grow food only for themselves. In slash and burn (shifting) farming a forest patch is cleared and burnt; when the soil loses fertility the family moves on. It is called jhumming in the north-east.
Intensive subsistence farming
Where there are many people and little land. Farmers use a lot of labour, fertiliser and irrigation to get high output from small plots. Land keeps getting divided among children, so fields become smaller.
Commercial farming
Crops are grown to sell. Farmers use high-yielding seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and machines. Rice is commercial in Punjab and Haryana but subsistence in Odisha.
Plantation farming
A single crop on a large estate, with lots of workers and money, often with its own processing unit: tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana.
Cropping seasons
- Rabi: sown October–December, harvested April–June. Wheat, barley, peas, gram, mustard. Winter rain from western disturbances helps.
- Kharif: sown with the monsoon (June–July), harvested September–October. Rice, maize, jowar, bajra, tur, moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut, soyabean.
- Zaid: a short summer season between rabi and kharif. Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables, fodder.
Major crops and what they need
- Rice: kharif; above 25°C, above 100 cm rain; alluvial soil; West Bengal, UP, Punjab (with canals).
- Wheat: rabi; cool growing season, bright sun at ripening; 50–75 cm rain; Ganga-Satluj plains, black soil of the Deccan.
- Millets (jowar, bajra, ragi): very nutritious; grow in dry areas with little rain; sandy or black soil.
- Maize: 21–27°C; old alluvial soil; both kharif and rabi in some states.
- Pulses: tur, urad, moong, masur, peas, gram; they add nitrogen to the soil, so they are rotated with other crops.
- Sugarcane: hot and humid, 21–27°C, 75–100 cm rain; needs lots of labour.
- Oilseeds: groundnut (kharif), mustard (rabi), sesamum, soyabean.
- Tea: warm, moist, frost-free; heavy rain spread over the year; well-drained, sloping land; Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiris.
- Coffee: Arabica, grown on the Nilgiris and Karnataka hills.
- Rubber: equatorial crop; above 25°C and above 200 cm rain; Kerala.
- Fibres: cotton on black soil, 210 frost-free days; jute in the flood plains of West Bengal ("golden fibre"). Silk from silkworms is called sericulture.
Technological and institutional reforms
After independence, land reforms (zamindari abolition, consolidation of small plots) came first. The Green Revolution (high-yielding seeds, fertilisers, irrigation) raised wheat and rice output; the White Revolution (Operation Flood) raised milk output. Kisan Credit Card, crop insurance, minimum support price, and weather and crop news on radio and TV also help farmers. Bhoodan–Gramdan (Vinoba Bhave) asked landowners to give land to the landless.
Try it
In the last 3D step, set rain to 200 cm and temperature to 28°C. Which crops grow tall? Now set 60 cm and 15°C. Predict first, then check. At home: ask an elder which crops are grown near your town in winter and in the rainy season, and sort them into rabi and kharif.
Key formulas and definitions
- Kharif: monsoon season (Jun–Oct): rice, cotton, maize, jute
- Rabi: winter season (Oct–Mar/Jun harvest): wheat, gram, mustard
- Zaid: short summer (Mar–Jun): watermelon, cucumber, fodder
- Rice: >25°C, >100 cm rain · Wheat: cool, 50–75 cm · Rubber: >25°C, >200 cm
Worked examples
1. A place has 150 cm rain and 30°C heat. Wheat or rice?
Rice. It needs above 25°C and above 100 cm rain; wheat needs a cool season and 50–75 cm.
2. Why is cotton grown on the Deccan plateau?
Black soil there holds water, and the area has high temperature, light rain and a long frost-free season that cotton needs.
3. Why do farmers grow pulses between cereal crops?
Pulses are legumes; they add nitrogen to the soil and restore its fertility.
Common mistakes
- Calling wheat a kharif crop. Wheat is rabi (winter).
- Thinking commercial farming means plantations only. Plantations are one kind of commercial farming.
- Saying rice cannot grow in low-rain Punjab. It grows there with canal and tubewell irrigation.
- Mixing jute (golden fibre) with cotton (black soil).