India Farming 101 – Crops & Soil Basics

Have you spent your entire life growing up in the city and are completely ignorant of what constitutes ‘farming’? Do you want to learn the absolute basics of farming in India? Read on then, and hopefully you learn something new today…

What is subsistence agriculture? Subsistence agriculture is very popular in India. It is a name given to farming done solely for the consumption of the farm owners.

• Primary subsistence: Farming on small areas of land with traditional tools like hoe, dao, digging sticks. Fertilizers are rarely used. It also includes shifting cultivation (explained later) and nomadic herding. Also called ‘Jhumming’ in certain local languages

• Intensive subsistence: Farming on large pieces of land, with the help of modern machinery and tools and also fertilizers

What is shifting agriculture? Also called slash-and-burn agriculture, it is a way of cultivating land in which farmers clear a piece of land by cutting down trees and then burning them so that they release their nutrients in the soil. Farming is then done on this land for a few years until the soil looses its nutrients. When that happens, the land is abandoned and the farmer moves onto another piece of land to do farming. Meanwhile, on the old piece of land, new trees grow again

What are crops? A plant (such as wheat, tomato, barley, cucumber etc.) becomes a crop when it is grown in large quantities over a large surface area (typically in acres). Some major crops that are grown in India are:

• Rice

• Wheat

• Maize/Corn

• Millets

• Cotton

• Jute

• Tea

• Coffee

What are the different types of crops? Crops in India are divided into three categories depending on the time of year they are planted. The three types are:

• Kharif crops:

  • Sown around June and harvested around September/October

  • Are also called Monsoon crops

  • Examples are rice, maize, bajra, ragi, soybean, groundnut, cotton

  • Rice predominantly grows in high-rainfall areas. It requires an average temperature of 25 degrees celsius and a minimum of 100cm of rainfall. It is traditionally grown in waterlogged rice paddy fields

  • Maize is grown in Andra Pradesh and Karnataka.

• Rabi crops:

  • Sown around November and harvested around March/April

  • Are also called Winter crops

  • Examples are wheat, barley, mustard, green peas, gram

  • Wheat requires temperatures between 14 and 18 degrees celsius and about 50 cm of rainfall

• Zaid Crops:

  • Grown between the Rabi and Kharif seasons around the months of March to July

  • Some examples are pumpkins, cucumber, and bitter gourd

With the basics of farming out of the way, let’s delve one level deeper to find out more about the core component of farming worldwide: SOIL

What does soil consist off? Soil primarily contains three things: organic materials, clay + silt + sand, rock. The texture of soil depends on the concentration of clay, silt, and sand in the soil. Clay has the smallest sized particles, silt second, and sand particles are the largest. The relative size of clay, silt, and sand particles are represented in the image below:

Source: https://www.soils4teachers.org/files/images/s4t/soil-texture.jpg

Soil has 5 properties:

• Texture: Sand particles are the largest, and clay the smallest. Thus, sandy soil is the most free and flowing while clay soil is the most sticky.

• Absorption of water: Sand absorbs the least water, followed by silt, and then clay

• Colour: Soil can have multiple colours. Black soil is high in humus and is considered to be very fertile. Red soil indicates presence of Iron Oxide. Sometimes it appears yellow because it contains less iron and more water. Black lava soil is rich in clay and formed from volcanic lava

• Soil pH: Soil becomes acidic over time as minerals are leeched away

• Air-holding capacity: Sand holds the most air, followed by silt, and then clay

Clay soil is fairly dense, and has good water and nutrient-retaining properties. It is good for growing plants that need a lot of water. Silt soil is in between clay and sand in terms of water holding capacity and it helps clay and sand mix well. Silt soil is very fine and also holds moisture, but, like clay, it can have a tendency to become compact. Most moisture loving plants, such as coloured flowers, vines, and grass, grow well in this type of soil. Sandy soils by contrast have a rough texture, which helps give good drainage and allow lots of air in the soil. Sand is ideal for drought-loving plants like cacti; however, because of its drainage properties, nutrients can be washed away. This type of soil can also grow tulips, shrubs and other plants that don't need too much water. However, unless you just want to grow desert plants, sandy soil isn't so great by itself.

What is the ideal soil type? Clay, silt, and sand are combined to form loamy soil, which holds medium water and also allows air to penetrate the soil. This enables you to grow almost any type of plant without having to add too much to the soil. The clay and silt help retain the moisture while the sand keeps the soil from compacting too much. This combination helps with the drainage and means that the soil can just crumble in your hand and yet still hold its shape. As loam doesn't dry out in the summer or get waterlogged in winter, it is an ideal soil all year round. Loamy soil also contains a substance called ‘humus’.

What is humus? Humus is a highly complex substance still not fully understood. It is a stable and uniformly dark, spongy and amorphous material which come from the mechanical degradation of organic matter. Humus is fertile and gather all properties suitable for optimal plant growth. It is formed by complex chemical compounds, of plant, animal and microbial origin

How is soil formed? Soil is formed by the weathering of big rocks over a thousand years. Soil that is mature has three layers, while soil that is immature has two layers.

• Horizon A or Topsoil: Contains humus making it soft and fertile. Plants grow here and earthworms etc are found here

• Horizon B or Subsoil: Lies just below topsoil. Comparatively harder and lighter because it contains no humus. Rich in minerals such as iron oxide brought down from the topsoil. Farmers mix this layer with topsoil while ploughing their fields

• Horizon C or Bedrock: Made of stones and rocks. Right above earth’s crust

Source: Toppr.com