Being an agrarian country, it is natural that multitudes of crops are available in the country. Most of the villages of India are hub of crops that even are exported to various foreign provinces. Ample supply of water for irrigation multiplied by hi tech techniques and machines have accelerated the growth of Indian crops to a large extent. There are two types of Indian crops, namely food crops and cash crops. Food crops are those, which are used for consumption, while the cash crops are not consumed but used for other purposes. Some of the food crops are rice, wheat, pulses, while cash crops are Jute, cotton, sugar cane and many others.
India produces about 193 million tonnes of different food grains every year. Paddy wheat, maize, barley, millets like jowar (great millet), bajra (pearl millet) & ragi (finger millet) are the major Indian crops that are found in the country. Few cash crops are grown which enriches the economic status of the country. Jute, cotton, sugar cane, cashew are few examples of Indian cash crops that are mostly found in regions like West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Haryana etc. Thus Indian crops nourishes the life of Indian populace not only with their nutritional values, also the exported crops bring loads of money from overseas.
Rice is the basic food crop of India and is grown in abundance in the western coastal strip, the eastern coastal strip, covering all the primary deltas, Assam plains and surrounding low hills, foothills and Terai region- along the Himalayas, and West Bengal, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh, northern Andhra Pradesh and the entire Orissa. Jute cultivation is believed to have started in India as early as 800 B.C. for manufacturing cordage, paper and cloth. It is one of the most important cash crops of eastern India. Jute is called the "brown paper of wholesale trade" since it is used for the package of many commodities such as cotton, wool, rice, wheat, sugar, pulses, fertilizer and cement. Jute is also used for manufacturing carpets, rugs, tarpaulins, upholstery, ropes and strings.
Wheat is one of the oldest crops introduced in India and it does well on the loamy soils of Northern plains covering Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. India is the largest producer as well as the consumer of pulses. Indian Pulses include grams (chana), arhar or moong, black gram (wad), lentil (masur) and peas (matar). They are grown all over the country, excluding areas with plentiful rainfall. India is has the largest surface area under sugarcane and its production is also the highest in the world. Uttar Pradesh is a leading producer in the states of Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and Karnataka.
Indian crops are the essential factor for the growth and survival of the nation. The food crops and cash crops, both play important roles in the lives and living of the Indians.
