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W.B.C.S. Examination Notes On – Cultivation Practices Of Rice – Agriculture Notes.
WBCS পরীক্ষার নোট – ধানের চাষাবাদ অভ্যাস – কৃষি নোট।
Agriculture as an optional subject is useful from numerous points of view. A decent hold over the subject helps you massively in taking care of the geography, economics, social issues in General Studies as the learning comes conveniently. Indeed, even essay paper, there is absolutely no less than one subject from Agriculture. Any W.B.C.S. aspirants who have scholarly foundation in Agriculture, Life Sciences, Botany, and other related fields can choose this subject as their optional. Paper I of agriculture is generic in nature where Paper- II is technical. Candidates with no prior knowledge of agriculture or Biology should not opt this subject as their optional for W.B.C.S. Mains Exam.Rice is the most important food crop of India covering about one-fourth of the total cropped area and providing food to about half of the Indian population.Continue Reading W.B.C.S. Examination Notes On – Cultivation Practices Of Rice – Agriculture Notes.
This is the staple food of the people living in the eastern and the southern parts of the country, particularly in the areas having over 150 cm annual rainfall. There are about 10,000 varieties of rice in the world out of which about 4,000 are grown in India.
Rice is life for thousands of millions of people. In Asia alone, more than 2,000 million people obtain 60 to 70 per cent of their calories from rice and its products. Recognising the importance of this crop, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2004 as the “International Year of Rice” (IYR).
The theme of IYR—“Rice is life” reflects the importance of rice as a primary food source, and is drawn from an understanding that rice-based systems are essential for food security, poverty alleviation and improved livelihood.
Conditions of Growth:
Rice is grown under varying conditions in India from 8° to 25° N latitude and from sea level to about 2,500 metre altitude. It is a tropical plant and requires high heat and high humidity for its successful growth. The temperature should be fairly high at mean monthly of 24°C.
It is the dominant crop in areas of over 200 cm annual rainfall and is still an important crop in areas of 100-200 cm rainfall. The 100 cm isohyet forms the limit of rice in rainfed areas. In areas receiving less than 100 cm annual rainfall, rice can be grown with the help of irrigation, as is done in Punjab, Haryana and western U.P. About 40 per cent of rice crop in India is raised under irrigation.
However, it is the temporal distribution of rainfall, rather than the total amount of annual rainfall which is more decisive. The rainfall should be fairly distributed throughout the year and no month should have less than 12 cm of rainfall. Lesser amount of rainfall is required as the harvesting time approaches.
The fields must be flooded under 10-12 cm deep water at the time of sowing and during early stages of growth. Therefore, the fields must be level and have low mud walls to retain water. This peculiar requirement of rice makes it primarily a crop of plain areas. Rice grown in well watered lowland plain areas is called wet or lowland rice.
In hilly areas, the hill slopes are cut into terraces for the cultivation of rice. Such a cultivation in which the hill slopes are cut into terraces is called terraced cultivation. The supply of water to the hill terraces is not as much as in the plain areas and the rice grown in hilly areas is called dry or upland rice.
Rice can be grown on a variety of soils including silts, loams and gravels and can tolerate acidic as well as alkaline soils. However, deep fertile clayey or loamy soils which can be easily puddled into mud and develop cracks on drying are considered ideal for raising this crop.
Such soil requirements make it dominantly a crop of river valleys, flood plains, deltas and coastal plains and a dominant crop there. High-level loams and lighter soils can be used for quick maturing varieties of rice. Black lava soil is also useful for rice cultivation.
Rice culture is not much suited to mechanisation and is called ‘hoe-culture’. Most of the work in preparing the seed-bed, in broadcasting seeds, or in transplantation of plants from nurseries to the fields, in harvesting and in winnowing operations is done by human hand. Thus it is a labour intensive cultivation and requires large supply of cheap labour for its successful cultivation.To view Agricultire Syllabus , CLICK HERE.
It is, therefore, primarily grown in areas of high population density which provide abundant labour and at the same time, offer ready market for its consumption. In most rice producing states, labour is locally available but in Punjab and Haryana, rice cultivation mainly depends upon the migrant labourers from Bihar and eastern U.P.
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