Agriculture Test - 7

Maize: It is a crop which is used both as food and fodder. It is a kharif crop which requires temperature between 21°C to 27°C and grows well in old alluvial soil.

India is the largest producer as well as the consumer of pulses in the world. These are the major source of protein in a vegetarian diet.

Being leguminous crops, all these crops except arhar help in restoring soil fertility by fixing nitrogen from the air. Therefore, these are mostly grown in rotation with other crops. Major pulse producing states in India are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Sugarcane is a tropical as well as a subtropical crop. It grows well in hot and humid climate with a temperature of 21°C to 27°C and an annual rainfall between 75cm. and 100cm.

Irrigation is required in the regions of low rainfall. It can be grown on a variety of soils and needs manual labour from sowing to harvesting.

India is the second largest producer of sugarcane only after Brazil. It is the main source of sugar, gur (jaggary), khandsari and molasses.

In 2008 India was the second largest producer of groundnut in the world after china. In rape seed production India was third largest producer in the world after Canada and China in 2008. Different oil seeds are grown covering approximately 12 per cent of the total cropped area of the country.

Groundnut is a kharif crop and accounts for about half of the major oilseeds produced in the country. Gujarat was the largest producer of groundnut followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 2011-12.

Tea cultivation is an example of plantation agriculture. It is also an important beverage crop introduced in India initially by the British. Today, most of the tea plantations are owned by Indians.

In 2008 India was the third largest producer of tea after China and Turkey.