Indian Geography Part 3: Soils and Cropping Patterns — The Agro Map, Exam-Ready Notes

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Civil ExamsCivil Services1 min read

Agriculture questions are soil and season questions with crop names attached.

Soil classes

  • Alluvial covers about 43%: the food bowl, khadar new and bhangar old.
  • Black regur: moisture-retentive, cotton and soybean.
  • Red and laterite: leached, tea-coffee-cashew on hills; peaty, saline and forest soils fill the map.

Seasons and belts

  • Kharif with the monsoon: rice, jute, bajra, cotton.
  • Rabi on winter westerlies: wheat, mustard, gram; zaid is the summer gap: melons, fodder.
  • Rice-wheat belt: Punjab-Haryana-west UP; millet drylands: Rajasthan-Karnataka plateau.

Irrigation and risk

  • About half of net sown area is irrigated; groundwater dominates the north-west.
  • Cropping intensity rises with irrigation; fallow cycles mark dryland Deccan.

Revise in 30 seconds

  • Alluvial 43%; black = cotton; laterite = plantation crops.
  • Kharif June-October, rabi October-March, zaid summer.
  • Green Revolution belt: Punjab, Haryana, western UP.

Quick revision

  • Alluvial covers about 43%: the food bowl, khadar new and bhangar old.
  • Black regur: moisture-retentive, cotton and soybean.
  • Red and laterite: leached, tea-coffee-cashew on hills; peaty, saline and forest soils fill the map.
  • Kharif with the monsoon: rice, jute, bajra, cotton.
  • Rabi on winter westerlies: wheat, mustard, gram; zaid is the summer gap: melons, fodder.
  • Rice-wheat belt: Punjab-Haryana-west UP; millet drylands: Rajasthan-Karnataka plateau.