Cropping Pattern

India has three cropping seasons:

1. Rabi
2. Kharif
3. Zaid
Rabi Kharif Zaid

Sowing Season Winter from October to Beginning of the rainy season In between the Rabi and the
December between April and May Kharif seasons, there is a
short season during the
Harvesting Summer from September-October summer months known as the
Season Zaid season (in the months of
March to July)
April to June
Important Crops Wheat, Barley, Peas, Gram Paddy, Maize, Jowar, Bajra, Tur Watermelon, Muskmelon,
and Mustard. (Arhar), Cucumber,
Moong, Urad, Cotton, Jute, Vegetables and Fodder crops
Groundnut and

Soyabean.

Millets

1. Jowar, Bajra and Ragi are the important millets grown in India.
2. These are known as coarse grains and have very high nutritional value.
Jowar Bajra Ragi

3rd most important food crop with respect to Grows well on sandy soils and It is a crop of dry regions.
area and production. shallow black soil.

It is a rain-fed crop mostly grown in moist Grows well on red, black, sandy,
areas. loamy and shallow black soils.

Mainly produced in Maharashtra, Major producing states are Major producing states are
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
Pradesh. Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Sikkim, Jharkhand and
Arunachal Pradesh.
Non-Food Crops
Rubber Fibre Cotton Jute

It is an equatorial crop. Cotton, Jute, Hemp and It is a Kharif crop. It is known as the
Natural Silk are the four major golden fibre.
fibre crops.

It requires a moist and humid Cotton, Jute and Hemp are It requires high It grows well on well-
climate with rainfall of more grown in the soil. drained fertile soils in
than 200cm and temperature the flood plains. A high
above 25°C. temperature, light rainfall, temperature is required
210 frost-free days and for its growth.
bright sunshine for its
growth.
It is an important industrial raw Natural Silk is obtained from Cotton grows It is used in making
material cocoons of the silkworms fed gunny bags, mats,
well in the black cotton soil
on green leaves ropes, yarn, carpets and
of the Deccan plateau. other artefacts.
Mainly grown in Kerala, Tamil Rearing of silkworms for the Major cotton-producing Major jute-producing
Nadu, Karnataka and Andaman production of silk fibre is states are Maharashtra, states are West Bengal,
and Nicobar islands and Garo known as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha
hills of Meghalaya. Karnataka, Andhra and Meghalaya.
Sericulture.
Pradesh,
Telangana, Tamil Nadu,
Punjab, Haryana and

Uttar Pradesh.