Agriculture of Telangana - Telangana PCS Exam Notes

Agriculture of Telangana

Agriculture and Cropping pattern of Telangana

Salient Features of Indian/Agriculture of Telangana

Subsistence Agriculture: Most parts of India have subsistence agriculture. This type of agriculture has been practised in India for several hundreds of years and still prevails in a larger part of India in spite of the large scale change in agricultural practices after independence.
Pressure of population on Agriculture: Despite increase in urbanization and industrialization, about 70% of population is still directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture.
Mechanization of farming: Green Revolution took place in India in the late sixties and early seventies. After more than forty years of Green Revolution and revolution in agricultural machinery and equipments, complete mechanization is still a distant dream
Dependence upon monsoon: Since independence, there has been a rapid expansion of irrigation infrastructure. Despite the large scale expansion, only about one third of total cropped area is irrigated today. As a consequence, two third of cropped areas is still dependent upon monsoon. Monsoon in India is uncertain and unreliable. This has become even more unreliable due to change in climate.
Variety of crops: India has diversity of topography, climate and soil. Since India has both tropical and temperate climate, crops of both the climate are found in India. There are very few countries in the world that have variety comparable to that of India..
Predominance of food crops: Since Indian agriculture has to feed a large population, production of food crops is the first priority of the farmers almost everywhere in the country. However, in recent years, there has been a decline in the share of land used for food crops due to various other commercially most advantageous uses of this land.
Seasonal patterns: India has three distinct agricultural/cropping seasons. You might have heard about kharif, rabi and zaid. In India there are specific crops grown in these three seasons. For example rice is a kharif crop whereas wheat is a rabi crop.

Profile of Agriculture of Telangana

Total Geographical area: 114.84 Lakh ha
Gross cropped area: 88 Lakh ha
Net cropped area: 61 Lakh ha
Gross Irrigated area: 64 Lakh ha
Net Irrigated area: 89 Lakh ha
Number of Farm Holdings: 54 lakh
1. Marginal: 41 Lakh
2. Small: 27 lakh
3. Others: 86 lakh
Average Farm Holding size: 1.12 Ha
Average Annual Rainfall: 906.6 mm
Cropping Intensity: 27%
Irrigation Intensity: 1.38%

Crops grown in different agro–climatic zones of Agriculture of Telangana

Telangana grows 27 important crops in Kharif and Rabi seasons put together covering an area of about 53.51 lakh ha.
The important crops grown are Rice (14.19) lakh ha, Maize (6.63) lakh ha, Pulses (6.11) lakh ha, Groundnut (1.89) lakh ha, Cotton (18.13) lakh ha, Chillies (0.83) lakh ha and Sugarcane (0.41) lakh ha.

*S. No.*	*Agro-Climatic zone*	*Kharif season Crop*	*Rabi season Crop*
1	Northern Telangana Zone	Rice, Cotton, Maize, soybean, Red gram, Green gram, Turmeric	Rice, Maize, Jowar, Bangal Gram, Green Gram, Sesame, Ground net, Sunflower
2	Central Telangana Zone	Rice, Cotton, Maize, soybean, Red gram, Green gram, Sesame	Rice, Maize, Bengal Gram, Green Gram, Black Gram, Ground net, Sunflower
3	Southern Telangana Zone	Rice, Cotton, Maize, Red gram, Green gram, Castor, Sesame	Rice Maize Ground net, Bengal Gram, Safflower, Sunflower

Major Crop of Agriculture of Telangana

Rice Crops

Rice is the most important food crop of India. It is predominantly a Kharif or summer crop.
It covers about one third of total cultivated area of the country and provides food to more than half of the Indian population.
Maximum population of India is of rice consumers.

Temperature: Rice requires hot and humid conditions. The temperature should be fairly high i.e. 24°C mean monthly temperature with average temperature of 22°C to 32°C.
Rainfall: Rainfall ranging between 150-300 cm is suitable for its growth in areas of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh where rainfall is less than 100 cm, rice is cultivated with the help of irrigation.
Soil: Rice is grown in varied soil conditions but deep clayey and loamy soil provides the ideal conditions. Rice is primarily grown in plain areas. It is also grown below sea level at Kuttinad (Kerala), hill terraces of north eastern part of India and valleys of Kashmir.

Pulses:

It includes a number of crops which are mostly leguminous and provide invaluable proteins to the vegetarian population of India.
As they have fewer sources of proteins in comparision to those who consume meat and fish.
They also serve as excellent forage and grain concentrates in the cattle feed.
Apart from that these leguminous crops have the capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and are normally rotated with other crops to maintain and restore soil fertility.
A large variety of pulses are found in India.
These are gram, tur or arhar (Pigeon Pea or Red Gram), urd (black gram), mung (green gram), masur (lentil), kulthi (horse gram), matar (peas) etc. But among these above mentioned varieties only gram and tur or arhar are more important pulses.
Gram: It is the most important of all the pulses. It accounts for about 37% of the production and about 30% of the total area of pulses in India. It is a rabi crop which is sown between September and November and is harvested between February and April. It is either cultivated as a single crop or mixed with wheat, barley, linseed or mustard. Some of the geographical conditions are as follows:
Temperature: It is grown in a wide range of climatic condition. Mild cool and comparatively dry climate with 20°C-25°C temperature.
Rainfall: 40-45 cm rainfall is favourable for gram cultivation.
Soil: It grows well on loamy soils.

Cotton:

Cotton is the most important fibre crop not only of India but also of the entire world. It not only provides a raw material for cotton textile industry but also its seed is used in Vanaspati oil industry.
The cotton seed is also used as part of fodder for milch cattle for better milk production.
Cotton is basically a kharif crop and grown in tropical and sub-tropical areas.
Some of the geographical conditions are as follows:

Temperature: Cotton is the crop of tropical and sub-tropical areas and requires uniformly high temperature varying between 21°C and 30°C.
Rainfall: It grows mostly in the areas having at least 210 frost free days in a year. It requires modest amount of rainfall of 50 to 100cm. However, cotton is successfully grown with the help of irrigation in the areas where rainfall is less than 50 cm.High amount of rainfall in the beginning and sunny and dry weather at the time of ripening are very useful for a good crop.
Soil: Cotton cultivation is very closely related to Black soils of Deccan and Malwa plateau. However, it also grows well in alluvial soils of the Satluj-Ganga plain and red and laterite soils of the peninsular region.

Groundnut

Groundnut is most important oil seeds of India. Grown as both as kharif and Rabi crop but 90-95% of the total area is devoted to kharif crop.
Groundnut thrives best in the tropical climate and requires 20°C to 30°C temperature.
50-75 cm rainfall is favourable for groundnut cultivation.
Groundnut is highly susceptible to frost, drought, continuous rain and stagnant water. It needs dry winder at the time of ripening.
Well drained light sandy loams, red, yellow and black soils are well suited for its cultivation.
Ground nit accounts for half of the major oilseeds produced in India. India is the second largest producer of groundnut (After China).
Top three states producing ground nut are Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Jowar

Jowar is grown both as kharif as well as a rabi crop.
As a kharif crop, it grows well in areas having mean monthly temperature of 26°C to 33°
As a rabi crop can be grown in areas where the mean monthly temperature does not fall below 16°C.
It requires more than 30 cm rainfall during the growing period and does not grow where the rainfall exceeds 100 cm.
Jowar is par excellence a rainfed crop of dry farming areas where irrigation is not used.
Both excessive moisture and prolonged droughts are harmful for its proper growth.

Department of Agriculture of Telangana Government

The Department of Agriculture of Telangana has been created mainly to provide Agricultural Extension services to farmers and to transfer the latest technical knowledge to the farming community, introduction of high yielding varieties, laying demonstrations, imparting training to farmers to improve skills & knowledge to boost up the agricultural production and productivity.
The other objectives of the Department are to assess requirements of agriculture inputs well in advance and to regulate their production and monitor timely supply of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, implements and credit, etc to farmers.

Vision –To enable each and every farmer achieve sustainable and economical agriculture productivity.

Mission of the Department

Attain 6% Growth Rate and Increased Returns on investment to farmers through improved Technology
Effective Extension Reach
Mechanisation, Marketing tie up, Adequate Credit, Crop Insurance
The Department also performs the statutory functions under various Acts and regulations (i.e., quality control) to ensure supply of quality inputs i.e., Seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to farmers and implementation of Dangerous Machines Regulation Act.
The Department also carries out certain other facilitating functions such as

Soil testing,
Soil and Water Conservation,
Soil Survey,
Credit assessment/ arrangements,
Media Production,
Trainings to farmers,
Arranging P.P. campaigns/ Diagnostic team visits whenever necessary,
Monitoring and Evolution,
Disaster Management,
Crop Insurance,
Agricultural Mechanization,
Extending technical assistance to various agencies

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