Agriculture: Class 10 Geography · Chapter 4

Think back over yesterday. The wheat in your roti, the dal, the sugar in your tea and the cotton in your school shirt all began in a field, often hundreds of kilometres away and months earlier. Farming is a primary activity: it takes what it needs straight from nature, from soil, water and sunshine.

Indian tea, coffee and spices are sold across the world. At home, textile mills, sugar mills and oil mills run on farm raw materials. Above all, our farms grow most of the food the country eats. Your textbook says that about two-thirds of India's people are engaged in farming. That share has been falling: the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS, calendar year 2025) found 43 per cent of India's workers in agriculture, still the largest share of any sector.

4.1 Types of farming

Indians have farmed for thousands of years, but never in just one way. How a family farms depends on three things: the land and climate around it, the tools and know-how it has, and the customs of its community. At one end of the range are families who grow food only for their own table, called subsistence farming. At the other end are farmers who grow almost everything for sale, called commercial farming. Fig. 4.1 places India's main farming types along that range.

4.1.1 Primitive subsistence farming

Picture a hillside plot in Mizoram or in the forests of Bastar: no tractor, no pump, no sack of fertiliser. A family works it with a hoe, a dao (a broad chopping knife) and a digging stick, and neighbours lend a hand at busy times. Whether the harvest is good depends on the monsoon and on the soil's own fertility. Such primitive subsistence farming (प्रारंभिक जीविका निर्वाह कृषि) survives today only in a few pockets of the country.

Most of it is slash and burn farming (Fig. 4.2). The family cuts down a patch of forest, lets the cut plants dry and sets them on fire; the ash adds a little fertility. Grains and vegetables are sown there for a few seasons. Once the soil is worn out, the family leaves and clears another patch, and the old one slowly turns back into forest while its soil recovers. Yields stay low, though: apart from the ash, nothing feeds the soil.

Slash and burn goes by many local names. In the north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland it is jhumming (झूम खेती). In Manipur it is Pamlou, and in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands it is Dipa.

4.1.2 Intensive subsistence farming

Where many people share little land, families farm intensively. They pour labour into every field and use plenty of fertiliser, pesticide and irrigation water, all to coax the biggest possible harvest out of each hectare. Even so, most of what they grow feeds the household. This intensive subsistence farming is typical of crowded, well-watered regions such as the plains of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, and the river deltas of the south.

Why is land so scarce? When a farmer dies, the land is usually divided among the heirs. After two or three generations a good-sized family farm becomes a row of thin strips, each too small to pay its way (Fig. 4.3). With few other jobs in the village, families keep working these strips as hard as they can, so every strip must feed a family and the land never gets a rest.

4.1.3 Commercial farming

A commercial farmer (वाणिज्यिक कृषि) grows mainly to sell, so it pays to buy modern inputs: seeds of high yielding varieties (HYV), chemical fertilisers, sprays against insects and other pests, and often machines. The goal is high productivity, that is, more output from every hectare. Some regions are far more commercial than others, and the same crop can be grown for sale in one place and for the home in another. A grower near Nashik who sends onions and grapes by truck to city markets is a commercial farmer; a hill family growing a few onions for its own kitchen is not.

Drive through upper Assam and the tea bushes run on for kilometres, broken only by shade trees, workers' homes and a factory chimney. This is a plantation (रोपण कृषि), a special kind of commercial farming. Its features:

• One crop on one huge estate: tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane or banana.
• Big money up front for land, bushes or trees, a factory and machines: plantations are capital-intensive.
• Hired workers, many of them migrants from other regions.
• Everything goes to industry: the whole harvest is raw material, so a plantation joins farming to industry.
• Good links: roads, railways, telephones and ports tie the estate to its factory and its buyers (Fig. 4.4).

The tea gardens of Assam and north Bengal and the coffee estates of Karnataka are India's best-known plantations.

4.2 Cropping pattern

India's wide range of landforms, soils, climates and food habits shows up in what its farmers grow: cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fibres, vegetables, fruits, spices and condiments. Through the year, farmers follow three cropping seasons: rabi (रबी), kharif (ख़रीफ़) and zaid (ज़ायद). Fig. 4.5 lays them out on a calendar.11The names come from Arabic: rabi means spring, when the winter crop is cut, and kharif means autumn, when the monsoon crop is cut.

Wheat, barley, peas, gram and mustard are rabi crops: they grow through the cool months, sown between October and December and cut between April and June. They are grown over much of India, but the north and north-west lead: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Two things favour these states. In winter, western temperate cyclones (western disturbances) drift in from the west and drop showers just when the young crops need moisture. And the Green Revolution brought irrigation, better seeds and fertiliser to Punjab and Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan.

Paddy is the king of the kharif season, which opens when the monsoon rains arrive; its crops are cut in September–October. Alongside paddy, farmers sow maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut and soyabean. Paddy fields spread across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Assam and West Bengal, coastal Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and Maharashtra's Konkan coast; in recent decades Punjab and Haryana have joined them. In the wet east, Assam, West Bengal and Odisha fit three paddy crops into a year: Aus (sown before the monsoon), Aman (the main monsoon crop) and Boro (an irrigated winter–spring crop).

Farmers who have water need not leave their fields idle in the hot months between the rabi harvest and kharif sowing. This short zaid season is for fast crops: watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and green fodder for animals. Sugarcane fits no single season; it occupies the field for about a year.

4.3 Major crops

Which crop grows where depends on soil, climate and the way people farm. India's major crops are the food grains (rice, wheat, millets, maize and pulses), other food crops (sugarcane, oilseeds, tea, coffee, fruits and vegetables) and non-food crops such as rubber, cotton and jute. For each one, the board exam expects four things: its season, its climate (temperature and rainfall), its soil and its leading states. Fig. 4.7 compares the rain and heat that some of them need.

4.3.1 Rice

Rice is the staple food of most Indians. Your textbook ranks India second in the world after China. Newer figures put India first. The US Department of Agriculture's estimates show India ahead of China in 2024–25 (150.2 against 145.3 million tonnes of milled rice), and in January 2026 the Union Agriculture Minister announced that India had become the world's largest rice producer. India's 2025–26 harvest was a record 154 million tonnes (Third Advance Estimates, May 2026). Answers based on the textbook may still say second.

Rice is a kharif crop that likes it hot and wet: temperatures above 25 °C, humid air and more than 100 cm of rain a year. It covers the plains of the north and north-east, the coastal strips and the river deltas. Where rain falls short, irrigation makes up the difference: thousands of canals and tube wells let drier areas grow it too, such as Punjab and Haryana, the western part of Uttar Pradesh and some of Rajasthan.

4.3.2 Wheat

Where rice loves heat and water, wheat wants a cool season to grow in, bright sunshine while the grain ripens, and only 50–75 cm of rain, spread evenly through its months in the field. That makes it a rabi crop and the main food grain of the north and north-west; it is India's second most important cereal. It grows in two belts: the Ganga–Satluj plains of the north-west and the black soil region of the Deccan. Your textbook names six major wheat states: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.

Production has shifted since the textbook's lists were drawn up. In 2024–25 the three largest rice producers were Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and West Bengal, and the three largest wheat producers were Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab (Fig. 4.8). Notice the contrast: rice is grown all over India, so the top three states give barely a third of it, while two-thirds of India's wheat comes from just three states.

4.3.3 Millets

Do not be fooled by the name coarse grains (मोटे अनाज), which only describes their small, rough grains. India's three main millets, jowar, bajra and ragi, are among the most nourishing foods we grow. A bowl of ragi porridge, for example, is loaded with calcium and iron, along with other micronutrients and fibre (roughage). At India's proposal, the United Nations declared 2023 the International Year of Millets, and India now calls millets Shree Anna. India is the world's largest millet producer, with about 38 per cent of world output in 2023 (FAO data, cited by the government in 2025).

4.3.4 Maize

Maize ends up on two kinds of plate: as roti, roasted cobs and cornflakes for people, and as fodder for farm animals. It is a kharif crop in most states, though Bihar grows it in the rabi season too. It needs 21–27 °C and does best on old alluvial soil. Its output has climbed as farmers took up HYV seeds, fertilisers and irrigation. Your textbook lists the major producers as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

4.3.5 Pulses

Dal is on almost every Indian table, and for vegetarian families it is the main source of protein. No country grows, or eats, more pulses than India. The main ones are tur (arhar), urad, moong, masur, peas and gram. Pulses are hardy: they make do with little moisture and survive dry spells. Your textbook names Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka as the major pulse states.

Pulses are leguminous crops (फलीदार फ़सलें). Bacteria living in small lumps (nodules) on their roots take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil, so pulses help restore the soil's fertility (Fig. 4.9). That is why farmers grow them in rotation with cereals, which use up nitrogen. Your textbook makes one exception: it says all these pulses except arhar restore fertility this way.22Arhar is a legume too, and field studies by agricultural scientists (for example at ICRISAT, Hyderabad) show its root nodules also fix nitrogen. For the board exam, give the textbook's answer.

4.4 Food crops other than grains

4.4.1 Sugarcane

Every spoon of sugar, every lump of gur (jaggery) and every grain of khandsari comes from sugarcane, and so does the molasses used by distilleries (Fig. 4.10). The cane needs hot, humid weather at 21–27 °C and 75–100 cm of rain a year; drier areas irrigate it. It is grown in both tropical and subtropical India, on many kinds of soil, and needs hand labour from planting to cutting. Your textbook ranks India second in the world after Brazil. FAO data for 2024 still place it second. India grew about 500 million tonnes of cane in 2025–26 (Third Advance Estimates), and in 2024–25 Uttar Pradesh alone grew almost half of India's cane. Its list of major producers starts with Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana and Punjab.

4.4.2 Oilseeds

The oil in your kitchen, whether mustard oil in the north and east, groundnut oil in Gujarat or coconut oil in Kerala, comes from oilseeds. India grows nine main kinds, together on about 12 per cent of its total cropped area: groundnut, mustard, coconut, sesamum (til), soyabean, castor seed, cotton seed, linseed and sunflower. Most are pressed for cooking oil; some oils also go into soap, cosmetics and ointments. Using 2020 data, your textbook places India second in the world for groundnut, after China.

Groundnut is a kharif crop and makes up about half of India's major oilseeds. In 2019–20 Gujarat grew the most, followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu (textbook). Newer data agree: in 2024–25 Gujarat grew about 44 per cent of India's groundnut, followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (Economic Survey 2025–26). The other oilseeds differ in season, as the table shows.

4.4.3 Tea

What is plucked from a tea bush is its tender young leaves, so the bush must keep sprouting all year (Fig. 4.11). That needs warmth and moisture with no frost in any month, and frequent showers spread through the year. The soil must be deep and fertile, rich in humus, on land that drains quickly; tropical and subtropical hill slopes suit it well. Tea is both a plantation crop and a beverage crop. The British began growing it commercially in India in the nineteenth century, but most gardens today are owned by Indians.

A tea garden needs many workers, cheap but skilled, to pluck the leaves by hand, and it runs its own factory so that the leaf is processed while still fresh. Assam leads, followed by the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala; Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura grow some too. Using 2020 data, your textbook places India second in tea, after China. FAO data for 2024 still place India second. In 2025 Assam grew about half of India's 1,396 million kg of tea and West Bengal about 30 per cent (Tea Board).

4.4.4 Coffee

Coffee came to India through the Baba Budan Hills of Karnataka, where it was first planted. The variety grown there, Arabica, originally came from Yemen and is prized around the world, and Indian coffee has a high reputation for quality. Today almost all of India's coffee comes from the hills of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Karnataka alone grew about 69 per cent of the 3.73 lakh tonnes harvested in 2025–26 (Coffee Board). Smaller, newer areas include the Araku Valley of Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha.

4.4.5 Horticulture crops

Horticulture (बागवानी) means growing fruits, vegetables and flowers. Using 2020 data, your textbook places India second in the world for fruits and vegetables, after China. FAO data for 2024 still place India second in both. Because India has both tropical and temperate climates, it grows both kinds of fruit, as the table shows. Among vegetables, India is an important producer of peas, cauliflower, onion, cabbage, tomato, brinjal and potato.

4.5 Non-food crops

4.5.1 Rubber

Rubber belongs to the hot, wet equatorial lands, yet where local conditions allow it can be grown in tropical and subtropical areas too. It needs a moist, humid climate with more than 200 cm of rain and temperatures above 25 °C. The milky latex tapped from the trees is an important raw material for industry. Kerala grows most of it; Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Garo hills of Meghalaya grow some too. In 2024–25 India produced about 8.75 lakh tonnes of natural rubber (Rubber Board).

4.5.2 Fibre crops

Three of India's four main natural fibres grow in fields: cotton, jute and hemp. The fourth, silk, is made by an insect. Silkworms feast on leaves, mostly of the mulberry tree, and then wrap themselves in cocoons of fine thread, which is unwound as silk. Raising silkworms for silk is called sericulture (रेशम कीट पालन) (Fig. 4.12).

Cotton

Cotton likes it hot, sunny and fairly dry: high temperatures, light rain or irrigation, bright sunshine and at least 210 frost-free days. The drier parts of the Deccan's black cotton soil suit it best. Sown in the kharif season, it takes 6 to 8 months to ripen. India is one of the places where people first grew cotton: cotton cloth found at Mohenjo-daro is about 4,500 years old. Today cotton is the chief raw material of the cotton textile industry. Your textbook ranks India second after China. FAO data for 2023 still place India second. In 2024–25 the three largest cotton states were Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana (Economic Survey 2025–26). Its list of major cotton states: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Jute

Gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and craft items can all be made from jute, the golden fibre, named for its shiny colour and its value. Jute needs high temperatures while it grows and fertile, well-drained soils on flood plains, where floods leave fresh silt every year. The main jute states are West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Odisha and Meghalaya. As a natural, biodegradable fibre, jute is a good replacement for plastic bags.

4.6 Technological and institutional reforms

Many Indian farmers still wait on the monsoon and rely on the soil's natural fertility, even though irrigation has spread. Land that has been farmed for thousands of years cannot keep yielding more unless technology (tools, seeds, irrigation) and institutions (who owns the land, who lends money, who buys the crop) change with it, and for long they did not. With a growing population to feed, and with farming the livelihood of a very large share of Indians, reform became urgent.

4.6.1 Reforms after Independence

Land reform was the main focus of the First Five Year Plan (1951–56). After Independence, institutional reforms took priority:

• Abolition of zamindari, removing the landlords who stood between the cultivator and the state.
• Consolidation of holdings (चकबंदी): inheritance had already scattered each family's land in bits, so plots were swapped into one compact block.
• Cooperation among farmers, and collectivisation (farming land jointly).

States passed land reform laws, but most were enforced half-heartedly, so much of their promise stayed on paper.

4.6.2 The Green and White Revolutions

The next push came during the 1960s and 1970s, with two 'revolutions'. The Green Revolution (हरित क्रांति) used a package technology: HYV seeds of wheat and rice, together with assured irrigation, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The White Revolution, carried out through Operation Flood, did the same for milk. Both raised output sharply, but the gains piled up in a few well-irrigated regions, above all Punjab, Haryana and the western part of Uttar Pradesh, leaving others behind.

4.6.3 Support for farmers since the 1980s

To spread the gains, the land development programme of the 1980s and 1990s mixed institutional and technical reforms. They can be grouped by what a farmer needs (Fig. 4.13):

• Credit: Grameen banks, cooperative societies and banks lend to farmers at lower interest; later came the Kisan Credit Card (KCC).
• Insurance: crop insurance covers losses from drought, flood, cyclone, fire and disease; the Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS) covers the farmer.
• Information: special weather bulletins and farm programmes on radio and television.
• Fair prices: the government announces a minimum support price (न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य), along with remunerative and procurement prices, for important crops, so that speculators and middlemen cannot exploit farmers.