Agriculture Science and Crop Production: Seasons, Cropping Systems and Statistics
The Agriculture Science and Crop Production paper checks whether you can place a crop in the right season, name its family and package of practices, and compute the cropping indices that appear in Rajasthan's kharif-rabi statistics.
Seasons in Rajasthan
- Kharif (sown June-July, harvested September-October): bajra, moth, guar, groundnut, cotton, maize, jowar, sesame, moong, cowpea. Bajra is Rajasthan's principal kharif crop.
- Rabi (October-November sowing, March-April harvest): wheat, mustard (toria and sarson), chana, barley, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, isabgol.
- Zaid (March-June): moong, cucurbits, watermelon and fodder maize grown on residual moisture.
Cropping terminology
- Net sown area (NSA): land sown at least once in an agricultural year, counted once.
- Gross cropped area (GCA): the sum of areas under all crops in all seasons, counted each time a crop is sown.
- Cropping intensity = (GCA divided by NSA) multiplied by 100.
- Intercropping: two or more crops in rows in a definite proportion, for example bajra with moong in 4:1. Mixed cropping has no row geometry. Relay cropping means sowing the next crop before the previous one is harvested.
Worked example
A tehsil has NSA of 40,000 ha and GCA of 68,000 ha. Cropping intensity = 68,000 divided by 40,000, multiplied by 100 = 170%. The extra 70 points mean that part of the land carries a second and sometimes a third crop; it does not mean 170% of the geographical area is cultivated.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing GCA in place of NSA, or using the geographical area as the denominator.
- Marking guar or moth as a cereal. Both are legumes, and guar is also an industrial gum crop.
- Treating mustard as a kharif oilseed. It is rabi, and Rajasthan leads India in mustard production.
- Forgetting that Zaid area also enters GCA and therefore raises cropping intensity.