Types of food and fiber crops, vegetables and fruits, spices and condiments, etc.. constitute some of the important crops grown in the country. India has three cropping seasons - Rabi, Kharif, and Zaid.

Rabi Cropping Season

Rabi crops are sown in winter from October to December and harvested in summer from April to June. Some of the important rabi crops are wheat, barley, peas, gram, and mustard. Though these crops are grown in large parts of India, states from the north and north-western parts such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh are important for the production of wheat and other rabi crops.

Availability of precipitation during winter months due to the western temperate cyclones helps in the success of these crops. However, the success of the green revolution in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Rajasthan has also been an important factor in the growth of the above-mentioned rabi crops.

Kharif Cropping Season

Kharif crops are grown with the onset of monsoon in different parts of the country and these are harvested in September-October. Important crops grown during this season are paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut, and soya bean.

Some of the most important rice-growing regions are Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra, particularly the (Konkan coast) along with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Recently, paddy has also become an important crop of Punjab and Haryana. In states like Assam, West Bengal, and Orissa, three crops of paddy are grown in a year.

Zaid Cropping Season

Let us learn about the last of the three cropping seasons in India. These are Aus, Aman, and Boro in between the rabi and the Kharif seasons, there is a short season during the summer months known as the Zaid season. Some of the crops produced during Zaid are watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber vegetables, and fodder crops. Sugarcane takes almost a year to grow.

Read More: Indian Agriculture: Types Of Farming: Primitive & Intensive Farming