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India is a predominantly agricultural economy. More than half her
population works on land. As the farmer sows his land and his farm
hands sing to his rhytham, the author leads you along the rice fields
and ripening wheat farms introducing you to the Indian farmer.
If it is Diwali
celebrations you are watching or Pongal celebrations that you are
partaking in, take care to look behind the rituals that mark the
festival. There is actually the joy of a good harvest that is
propelling the agricultural community to celebrate.
Indeed, the lives of the
Indian people have been so closely linked to the swings of
agricultural activity that much of the traditions, beliefs and
celebrations that are still actively pursued in today’s urban
centres have their origins in rituals surrounding agricultural
practices.
For centuries,
agriculture has been the mainstay of the economy. In fact, the
magnitude of agriculture and related activities has dwarfed all other
economic activity in India. When India attained independence,
agriculture accounted for more than half the national income and
provided employment to about 76% of the work force. Since then,
because of the rapid growth of other sectors, its relative importance
has declined but it still accounts for nearly one-third the national
income today and employs about 65% of the population.
Travellers to India have
recorded the abundance of the countryside, the industry of the
peasants and the interest of the State in investing in irrigation
canals. The reputation of Indian spices was known to the ancient
world.
India has a long history
of producing and exporting spices. It was the spice trial that led
Europeans to trade with the subcontinent. Today, the major spices
India exports are pepper, capsicum, seed spices like coriander,
fenugreek fennel, vanilla and saffron, chilli, ginger, turmeric,
cinnamon and cassia. While almost all states produce spices, those
accounting for a larger share are Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. In more recent history,
Indian cotton and tea have been exported to all parts of the world,
while tobacco, rubber and coffee also figure in the list.
Who has not heard of or
worn the famous Indian cotton? To digress, do take some time off to
buy yourself some good cotton shirts and skirts. Cotton is
indigenous to India. Did you know that in Babylon and Greece cotton
yarn was called sindhu and sindhon because
it hailed from a country
called Sindhu? (India was called Sindhu in ancient times). Cotton
grows very well in the drier parts of the black cotton soil of the
Deccan Plateau, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab
and Madhya Pradesh.
Lovers to tea will swear
by Darjeeling tea. Choose the April buds, when you shop for tea, they
are so delicately fragrant. If that is not available do not lose
heart, choose the tea leaf that grows at the highest altitude, if
your purse permits.
Tea plays an important
role in the national economy. It earns a substantial amount of
foreign exchange for the country from its exports in addition to
generating substantial revenue by way of cess, sales tax and
agricultural income tax. Tea industry provides employment of about 1
million people in tea plantations while also providing employment to
an equal number in ancillary industries. Assam, Darjeeling and
Nilgiri tea are available in different blends and exotic varieties.
Talking of variety, look
at the diverse conditions prevailing in Indian agriculture.
Physically vast and
exhibiting significant geographical, climatic and soil-type
diversities, the one common feature of Indian agriculture is its
dependence on the most unpredictable of nature’s elements: the
rains! The desert terrain of the Thar region in the west manages an
uncertain rainfall of 4 to 5 inches a year. On the other hand some
areas (like Cherrapunji in Assam) can enjoy an average of about 450
inches of rains a year. Consequently flood and drought conditions
often occur simultaneously in different regions of the country.
Equally, India defies
generalization with respect to its soil type. Different parts of the
country have widely varying soil profiles; the alluvial, black, red
and lateritic. In addition to these categories, many other types of
soils such as hill soils and desert soils are found in some special
regions of the country.
Naturally the crops they
grow also differ. Agriculture in India is carried out over 163
million hectares, three fourths of which grow foodgrain. Foodgrains
also account for 63% of the agriculture output of the country.
Within the category of foodgrains, cereals are grown in over 80% of
the area. The period after the ‘Green-Revolution’ of the
mix-sixties has seen an increase in the area devoted to foodgrains
largely on account of the emphasis on wheat production.
The most important crop
in India is, however, rice which is grown on more than a third of the
total area under foodgrains. Wheat is the second most important crop
of India and in some ways constitutes the success story of the
agricultural development programme of the country. At the time of
independence it was grown on about 10% of the area under
foodgrains but in the
post green-revolution period this increased rapidly so that wheat now
accounts for over 20% of this area has occurred in the northern
states of India. Other foodgrains that are of lesser importance are
sorghum, pearl millet and maize.
Over the years farmers
have been giving increasing importance to non-food crops too. Over
the past 25 years, the area under non-foodgrains has increased by
nearly 50% . This means more sugarcanes to bite into and more oil
from various kinds of oilseeds like sesame sunflower and soyabean not
to mention groundnut.
Since Indian agriculture
is dependent on the monsoons, the growing seasons are decided in
relation to them. Almost all rainfall that India receive is during
the span of three months that follow summer. So there is either the
autumn crop called kharif or the winter crop called rabi.
The kharif crop predominantly uses the moisture from the
monsoon rains. With the pre-monsoon showers, farmers perk up. They
get their land ready and await monsoons to sow their kharif
crop. The time is around June-early July. By the end of the
monsoons these crops are ready for harvest. This is the time when
many festivals are celebrated throughout the country. If one offers
thanksgiving of Mother Earth, the other festival celebrates the
prosperity and prays for continued seasons of good luck. The kharif
crops include rice, millets, maize, groundnuts, jute and cotton.
Some pulses are also grown this season.
The rabi crop on
the other hand is usually possible in irrigated conditions, sown in
November and harvested in April-May. The new year is celebrated in
most parts of India in mid April. It begins with freshly harvested
grain. The major crops are wheat, gram and oil seeds like mustard
and rapeseed.
In well irrigated crops
another brief season has been introduced where early-maturing crops
are grown. Green gram and black gram are some favourites.
Irrigation being
paramount, the best loved kings and emperors have been those who took
a keen interest in the construction of irrigation canals and tanks
and shielded their subjects from the vagaries of nature. Would you
be surprised to know that the Vedas (ancient scriptures) contain
references to methods of lifting water in leather skins! The Mauryan
rule (3rd-1st century B.C.) did much to
construct canals and ensure fair distribution of water. Much later
(14th century A.D.) Firoz Shah Tughlak of the Tughlak
dynasty and subsequently Akbar (17th century A.D.), laid
great emphasis on the construction of canals. Today in India more
than 1000 major and minor irrigation works have been carried out.
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