The main objective of protective irrigation is to:

achieve maximum productivity with a high water input per hectare

drain away excess water from waterlogged fields

replace rainfall entirely in desert areas with canal water

Assertion (A): Pulses are an important part of crop rotation in Indian agriculture. Reason (R): Pulses are a major source of protein in the Indian diet.

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Land Resources and Agriculture in India

Land is a finite resource, and in India a very large share of the population still depends on it for a livelihood. This chapter begins with how land is used — the nine categories of land use in the revenue records and the idea of common property resources — then turns to agriculture: the cropping seasons, the difference between irrigated and rainfed farming, the major crops and where they grow, the Green Revolution, and the problems Indian agriculture faces. Questions ask for exact definitions (current fallow against culturable wasteland), the season of a crop, a short computation of cropping intensity, and the reasons behind patterns.

Land-Use Categories

The nine categories of land use in the land revenue records
Category	What it covers
1. Forests	Area demarcated as forest by the government — which may differ from the area actually under forest cover
2. Land put to non-agricultural uses	Settlements (rural and urban), infrastructure (roads, canals), industries, shops
3. Barren and wastelands	Land that cannot be brought under cultivation with available technology — barren hilly terrain, desert, ravines
4. Permanent pastures and grazing lands	Mostly owned by the village panchayat or the government; only a small part privately owned
5. Miscellaneous tree crops and groves	Orchards and fruit trees — not included in the net sown area
6. Culturable wasteland	Land left fallow (uncultivated) for more than five years; it can be reclaimed
7. Current fallow	Land left without cultivation for one or less than one agricultural year — a practice to let the land recover its fertility
8. Fallow other than current fallow	Land left uncultivated for more than one year but less than five years
9. Net area sown	The physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested

🧠 One, five, and the gap between

Uncultivated for up to one year — current fallow. Between one and five years — fallow other than current fallow. More than five years — culturable wasteland. Questions change only the number of years; fix the two boundaries, one and five, and every such question is settled.

Common property resources (CPRs) — community forests, pastures, village water bodies and other public spaces — are owned by the state and used by the community. They give fodder, fuel and minor forest produce, and matter most for the landless, marginal farmers and women, who depend on them for a livelihood. Cropping intensity measures how many times the same land is cropped in a year: cropping intensity = (gross cropped area ÷ net sown area) × 100. Worked (illustrative): gross cropped area 240 lakh ha on a net sown area of 160 lakh ha gives (240 ÷ 160) × 100 = 150 per cent.

Cropping Seasons and Types of Farming

The three cropping seasons of northern India
Season	Months	Typical crops
Kharif	June–September, with the south-west monsoon	Rice, cotton, bajra, maize, jowar, tur (arhar)
Rabi	October–March, the winter season	Wheat, gram, rapeseed and mustard, barley
Zaid	April–June, a short summer season after rabi	Vegetables, fruits, fodder

In the south, temperatures are high enough for crops to grow in any season, so the same crop — rice, for example — can be grown three times a year where water allows. By source of moisture, farming is irrigated or rainfed. Protective irrigation aims to protect crops from the adverse effects of soil-moisture deficiency, supplementing rainfall; productive irrigation aims to provide enough moisture to achieve high productivity, so its water input per unit of cultivated land is higher. Rainfed farming is either dryland farming, in regions with less than 75 cm of annual rainfall, growing hardy, drought-resistant crops such as ragi, bajra, moong, gram and guar and relying on moisture conservation; or wetland farming, where rainfall exceeds the soil’s needs, growing rice, jute and sugarcane, with aquaculture in freshwater bodies.

Major Crops

Crops, their conditions and the regions the book names
Crop	Conditions and notes	Main regions
Rice	Kharif in the north; needs high temperature, humidity and rainfall; in West Bengal three crops — aus, aman and boro. Punjab and Haryana are not traditional rice areas; irrigated rice there spread from the 1970s	Deltas and coastal plains, the northern plains, the north-east
Wheat	Rabi; a temperate crop needing a cool growing season and bright sunshine at ripening	The Ganga–Satluj plains and the Malwa plateau
Millets (jowar, bajra, ragi)	Coarse cereals of drier areas; bajra tolerates hot, dry conditions and sandy soils	Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat
Pulses (gram, tur)	Leguminous crops that fix nitrogen and restore soil fertility, hence used in rotation; gram is rabi, tur kharif	Largely rainfed drylands of central and western India
Oilseeds	Groundnut (mainly kharif, on drylands), rapeseed and mustard (rabi), soybean, sunflower	Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and the Deccan
Cotton	Tropical kharif crop of semi-arid areas; suited to the black soils of the Deccan; both short-staple and long-staple varieties grown	The Deccan plateau, north-western India, Gujarat
Jute	The "golden fibre", used for coarse cloth, bags and sacks; needs hot, humid conditions and fertile, flood-renewed soils	West Bengal and the eastern delta region
Sugarcane	Tropical crop; in the north it is grown with irrigation	Uttar Pradesh and the plains of the north; Maharashtra and the south
Tea	Plantation crop of hill slopes with heavy rainfall and well-drained soils, where water does not stagnate at the roots	Assam (Brahmaputra and Surma valleys), Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, the Nilgiri hills
Coffee	Tropical plantation crop; India grows mainly the superior Arabica, along with Robusta	The Western Ghats of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu

Agricultural Development and Its Problems

From the mid-1960s the Green Revolution combined high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers and assured irrigation, beginning with wheat and then rice in irrigated areas, and supported by programmes such as the Intensive Agricultural District Programme. It made India self-sufficient in foodgrains but was at first confined to irrigated regions, widening regional disparities. In the late 1980s the Planning Commission introduced agro-climatic planning, to plan agriculture region by region according to the resources and climate of each.

Dependence on an erratic monsoon — most of the cultivated area is rainfed, so droughts and floods hit output.
Low productivity compared with many countries.
Constraints of financial resources and indebtedness — small farmers depend on credit and are hurt by crop failure.
Lack of land reforms, and small and fragmented landholdings that make modern methods uneconomic.
Lack of commercialisation and vast underemployment, especially in rainfed areas between seasons.
Degradation of cultivable land — salinisation and waterlogging from excessive irrigation in intensively farmed areas, and soil erosion elsewhere.

Key takeaways

Current fallow: up to one year; fallow other than current: one to five years; culturable wasteland: more than five years.
Groves and miscellaneous tree crops are not part of the net sown area; CPRs matter most to the landless, marginal farmers and women.
Cropping intensity = gross cropped area ÷ net sown area × 100.
Kharif June–September (rice, cotton); rabi October–March (wheat, gram, mustard); zaid April–June (vegetables, fodder).
Protective irrigation supplements rainfall; productive irrigation maximises yield. Dryland farming: under 75 cm of rain.
Wheat: Ganga–Satluj plains and Malwa; tea: well-drained hill slopes; cotton: Deccan black soils; jute: West Bengal; pulses fix nitrogen.
The Green Revolution (mid-1960s): HYV seeds, fertilisers, irrigation — first in irrigated wheat and rice areas, widening regional gaps.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Land that has been left uncultivated for more than five years is classified as:
1. Culturable wasteland
2. Current fallow
3. Fallow other than current fallow
4. Barren and wasteland
Show answer
Answer: A — Culturable wasteland
Land left uncultivated for more than five years is culturable wasteland — it could be farmed if reclaimed. Current fallow is left for one year or less, fallow other than current fallow for between one and five years, and barren and wasteland is land that cannot be cultivated with the technology available, however long it is left.
Which of the following is a rabi crop in northern India?
1. Rice
2. Cotton
3. Wheat
4. Jute
Show answer
Answer: C — Wheat
Wheat is the main rabi crop, sown at the start of winter in October–November and harvested in spring; it needs a cool growing season. Rice, cotton and jute are kharif crops of the south-west monsoon season, grown between June and September in the north.
Dryland farming in India is largely confined to regions with annual rainfall of:
1. More than 150 cm
2. Less than 75 cm
3. Between 100 cm and 150 cm
4. More than 200 cm
Show answer
Answer: B — Less than 75 cm
Dryland farming is practised where annual rainfall is less than 75 cm, with hardy, drought-resistant crops such as ragi, bajra, moong, gram and guar and an emphasis on conserving soil moisture. Regions where rainfall exceeds the soil’s needs practise wetland farming instead, growing rice, jute and sugarcane.
A region has a gross cropped area of 240 lakh hectares and a net sown area of 160 lakh hectares. Its cropping intensity is:
1. 66.7 per cent
2. 80 per cent
3. 400 per cent
4. 150 per cent
Show answer
Answer: D — 150 per cent
Cropping intensity = (gross cropped area ÷ net sown area) × 100 = (240 ÷ 160) × 100 = 150 per cent, meaning the average hectare is cropped one and a half times a year. 66.7 per cent inverts the ratio, 80 per cent is the difference between the two areas mistaken for a percentage, and 400 per cent adds them.
Match List-I (crop) with List-II (typical growing condition or region):
List-I: A. Tea B. Jute C. Cotton D. Wheat
List-II: I. Black soils of the Deccan plateau II. Rabi crop of the Ganga–Satluj plains III. Hill slopes with heavy rainfall and well-drained soils IV. The "golden fibre" of West Bengal
1. A-III, B-I, C-IV, D-II
2. A-IV, B-III, C-I, D-II
3. A-III, B-IV, C-II, D-I
4. A-III, B-IV, C-I, D-II
Show answer
Answer: D — A-III, B-IV, C-I, D-II
Tea grows on hill slopes with heavy rainfall where water drains away from the roots; jute is the golden fibre of West Bengal; cotton suits the black soils of the Deccan; and wheat is the rabi crop of the Ganga–Satluj plains. The near-miss codes swap jute and cotton — both fibres — or cotton and wheat.
The main objective of protective irrigation is to:
1. protect crops from the adverse effects of soil-moisture deficiency
2. achieve maximum productivity with a high water input per hectare
3. drain away excess water from waterlogged fields
4. replace rainfall entirely in desert areas with canal water
Show answer
Answer: A — protect crops from the adverse effects of soil-moisture deficiency
Protective irrigation supplements rainfall so that crops are not damaged by a shortage of soil moisture; it covers as large an area as possible with limited water. Achieving maximum productivity with a high water input per unit of land is the aim of productive irrigation — the distinction the paper tests — while draining waterlogged land is the opposite problem.
Assertion (A): Pulses are an important part of crop rotation in Indian agriculture.
Reason (R): Pulses are a major source of protein in the Indian diet.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both statements are true, but the reason given does not explain the assertion. Pulses are rotated with cereals because, being leguminous, they fix atmospheric nitrogen and restore the fertility of the soil. Their value as food explains why they are grown and eaten, not why they are placed in a rotation.
Consider the following statements about the problems of Indian agriculture:
A. Much of the cultivated area depends on an erratic monsoon.
B. Landholdings are small and fragmented.
C. Excessive irrigation has caused waterlogging and salinisation in some intensively farmed areas.
D. Most Indian farms are so large and mechanised that labour is scarce in villages.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
1. A and B only
2. B, C and D only
3. A, B and C only
4. A, C and D only
Show answer
Answer: C — A, B and C only
A, B and C are among the recognised problems of Indian agriculture: dependence on the monsoon, small and fragmented holdings, and land degradation from excessive irrigation. D is the reverse of the truth — holdings are small, and rural India suffers from underemployment, not a shortage of labour — so any option containing D is wrong.