Identify the crop on the basis of the following characteristics: 1. It is a kharif crop. 2. Aus, Aman and Boro are its three different growing periods in an agricultural year. 3. About one-fourth of the total cropped area of India is under its cultivation. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)Wheat
- (b)Rice
- (c)Pulses
- (d)Cotton
Correct — B, Rice. Each of the three clues is a sentence from the school geography text on rice. Aus, aman and boro are the three crops of rice grown in West Bengal in one agricultural year, so clue 2 identifies the crop on its own — no other Indian crop carries those names. Clue 3 matches the textbook figure that about one-fourth of the total cropped area in the country is under rice cultivation, far ahead of pulses at about eleven per cent and cotton at about 4.7 per cent. Clue 1 fits too: in the Himalayas and the north-western parts of the country rice is grown as a kharif crop during the south-west monsoon, which is what makes rice the classic monsoon cereal. Where the eastern and southern regions have enough rainfall or irrigation, two or three crops of rice are taken in a year, which is exactly what the aus-aman-boro cycle records.
- (a)Wheat — Wheat is a rabi crop of the winter season, not a kharif crop, and it occupies about one-seventh rather than one-fourth of the cropped area. Its regional names are nothing like aus, aman and boro.
- (c)Pulses — Pulses take up about eleven per cent of the total cropped area, less than half the share in clue 3, and they are grown in both kharif and rabi seasons, mainly in the drylands of the Deccan and central plateaus.
- (d)Cotton — A kharif crop, so clue 1 does not eliminate it — but it occupies only about 4.7 per cent of the cropped area, and it has no three-season cycle of the aus-aman-boro kind.
India's agricultural year runs in three seasons. Kharif crops are sown with the onset of the south-west monsoon in June and July and harvested in September and October — rice, jowar, bajra, maize, cotton, groundnut and jute. Rabi crops are sown in October and November and harvested in April and May — wheat, barley, gram, mustard and peas. Zaid is the short summer season between the two. Rice needs high temperature, high humidity and generous water, which is why it dominates the eastern and southern plains and the deltas, and why it can be grown in the north-west only under canal and tubewell irrigation.
The efficient route through an identify-the-crop item is to look for the clue that only one crop can satisfy. Season and area share are shared by several crops; a set of three local names is unique. Aus is the early, autumn-harvested crop, aman the main monsoon crop harvested in winter, and boro the summer crop grown on residual moisture and irrigation — a cycle possible only where warmth and water last all year, as in Bengal. It is worth being precise about what the school text actually says, because the stem generalises it slightly: the aus-aman-boro triple is described as a West Bengal practice, not an all-India one, and the paper presents it as a feature of the crop across the country. That does not change the answer — the names still point to rice alone — but a candidate who has read the chapter closely should not be thrown by the shift. On the numbers, India contributed 22.07 per cent of world rice production and ranked second after China in 2018; it has since overtaken no one at the top but has become by some distance the world's largest exporter of rice.
- In West Bengal farmers grow three crops of rice in one agricultural year, called aus, aman and boro.
- About one-fourth of the total cropped area of India is under rice cultivation.
- In the Himalayas and the north-western parts of the country rice is grown as a kharif crop during the south-west monsoon season.
- West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are the leading rice-producing States, while yields are highest in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and the southern States.
- For comparison, pulses occupy about eleven per cent and cotton about 4.7 per cent of the total cropped area.
- Reading 'kharif' as decisive; cotton, jowar, bajra and maize are kharif crops too, so the season clue alone settles nothing.
- Confusing the share of cropped area with the share of production or of value; the stem is about area.
- Treating aus, aman and boro as varieties of rice; they name growing periods within the agricultural year.
Asked as an identify-the-crop item built from three clues, of which one — usually a set of local names — is unique to the answer.
With reference to the cultivation of Kharif crops in India in the last five years, consider the following statements: 1. Area under rice cultivation is the highest. 2. Area under the cultivation of jowar is more than that of oilseeds. 3. Area of cotton cultivation is more than that of sugarcane. 4. Area under sugarcane cultivation has steadily decreased. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) 1 and 3
- (b) 2 and 3
- (c) 2 and 4
- (d) 1, 2 and 4
Answer(a) 1 and 3
The area clue, tested directly. UPSC affirms that rice occupies the largest kharif area in India, which is the same fact the CDS stem states as about one-fourth of the total cropped area.
Consider the following crops : 1. Cotton 2. Groundnut 3. Rice 4. Wheat. Which of these are Kharif crops?
- (a) 1 and 4
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1, 2 and 3
- (d) 2, 3 and 4
Answer(c) 1, 2 and 3
The season clue, and a demonstration of why it settles nothing on its own. Cotton and rice are both kharif crops, so the CDS item needs its second and third clues — the aus-aman-boro cycle and the share of cropped area — to separate them.
Which one of the following crops is generally benefitted by the rain caused by western disturbances in India ?
- (a) Rice
- (b) Wheat
- (c) Bajra
- (d) Cotton
Answer(b) Wheat
The rabi counterpart. Wheat depends on winter rain from the western disturbances, while rice depends on the south-west monsoon, and holding the two water sources apart is the cleanest way to keep the two seasons apart.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Of the three rice crops grown in West Bengal, which one is the summer crop raised largely on irrigation and residual moisture?
- (a)Aus
- (b)Aman
- (c)Boro
- (d)Jowar
Answer(c) Boro — the summer crop, while aus is the early autumn-harvested crop and aman the main monsoon crop harvested in winter.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is a rabi crop in India?
- (a)Rice
- (b)Cotton
- (c)Wheat
- (d)Jute
Answer(c) Wheat — sown in October and November and harvested in April and May, while rice, cotton and jute are kharif crops.