Early farming village in Mehrgarh (7000-5000 BCE)—discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige—with houses built with mud bricks (Musée Guimet, Paris).
Grand Anicut dam on river Kaveri (1st-2nd Century CE) is the oldest water-regulation structure in the world still in use.
Farming in the state of Haryana.
The fertile Ganges River Delta—known for severe flooding and tropical cyclones—supports cultivation of jute, tea, and rice. Fisheries are both produced and exported from this region.
Paddy fields near Nagerkovil in the Tamil Nadu stae of South India. Tamil Nadu is one of the largest rice producing states of India.
Black pepper, cardamom, and coffee is grown on the Cardamom Hills in Western Ghats of India.
Sutlej Valley from Rampur ca. 1857. A number of irrigation canals are located on the Sutlej river.
Bhakra Dam (completed 1963) is the largest dam in India.
Tea in Assam is grown at elevations near sea level—giving it an earthy flavor— as opposed to the more floral aroma of highland e.g. Darjeeling tea.
Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth at Akola, Maharashtra is an agricultural university in the Vidarbha region of India.
Rice R Wheat W Jowar (Sorghum) J Bajra (Millet) B Areas with two predominate crops
Minor crop Areas in India: P Pulses, S Sugarcane, J Jute, Cn Coconut, C Cotton, and T Tea.
Indian agriculture begins by 9000 BCE as a result of early cultivation of plants, and domestication of crops and animals.
The middle ages saw irrigation channels reach a new level of sophistication in India and Indian crops affecting the economies of other regions of the world under Islamic patronage.
Contents
- 1 Early history
- 2 Vedic period – Post Maha Janapadas period (1500 BCE – 200 CE)
- 3 Early Common Era – High Middle Ages (200–1200 CE)
- 4 Late Middle Ages – Early Modern Era (1200–1757 CE)
- 5 Colonial British Era (1757–1947 CE)
- 6 Republic of India (1947 CE onwards)
- 7 See also
- 8 Gallery
- 9 Notes
- 10 References
- 11 External links
//
Early history
Wheat, barley and jujube were domesticated in the Indian subcontinent by 9000 BCE; Domestication of sheep and goat soon followed.
A variety of tropical fruit such as mango and muskmelon are native to the Indian subcontinent.
Archaeological evidence indicates that rice was a part of the Indian diet by 8000 BCE.
The origin of rice culture has been traced to India in about 3000 BC. Rice culture gradually spread westward and was introduced to southern Europe in medieval times. With the exception of the type called upland rice, the plant is grown on submerged land in the coastal plains, tidal deltas, and river basins of tropical, semitropical, and temperate regions. The seeds are sown in prepared beds, and when the seedlings are 25 to 50 days old, they are transplanted to a field, or paddy, that has been enclosed by levees and submerged under 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) of water, remaining submerged during the growing season.
Denis J. Murphy (2007) further details the spread of cultivated rice from India into South-east Asia:
Several wild cereals, including rice, grew in the Vindhyan Hills, and rice cultivation, at sites such as Chopani-Mando and Mahagara, may have been underway as early as 7000 BP. The relative isolation of this area and the early development of rice farming imply that it was developed indigenously.
Chopani-Mando and Mahagara are located on the upper reaches of the Ganges drainage system and it is likely that migrants from this area spread rice farming down the Ganges valley into the fertile plains of Bengal, and beyond into south-east Asia.
Rice was cultivated in the Indus Valley Civilization.
Irrigation was developed in the Indus Valley Civilization by around 4500 BCE.
Archeological evidence of an animal-drawn plough dates back to 2500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilization.
Vedic period – Post Maha Janapadas period (1500 BCE – 200 CE)
Jute was first cultivated in India, where it was used to make ropes and cordage.
Gupta (2004) finds it likely that summer monsoons may have been longer and may have contained moisture in excess than required for normal food production.
The Encyclopedia Britannica—on the subject of agriculture of the later Vedic period—holds that:
In the later Vedic texts (c. 1000–500 BC), there are repeated references to iron. Cultivation of a wide range of cereals, vegetables, and fruits is described. Meat and milk products were part of the diet; animal husbandry was important. The soil was plowed several times. Seeds were broadcast. Fallowing and a certain sequence of cropping were recommended. Cow dung provided the manure. Irrigation was practiced.
The Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE) categorized soils and made meteorological observations for agricultural use.
The Greek diplomat Megasthenes (c. 300 BC)—in his book Indika— provides a secular eyewitness account of Indian agriculture:
India has many huge mountains which abound in fruit-trees of every kind, and many vast plains of great fertility. . . . The greater part of the soil, moreover, is under irrigation, and consequently bears two crops in the course of the year. . . . In addition to cereals, there grows throughout India much millet . . . and much pulse of different sorts, and rice also, and what is called bosporum .
Since there is a double rainfall in the course of each year . . . the inhabitants of India almost always gather in two harvests annually.
Early Common Era – High Middle Ages (200–1200 CE)
Spice trade involving spices native to India—including cinnamon and black pepper—gained momentum as India starts shipping spices to the Mediterranean.
The Tamil people cultivated a wide range of crops such as rice, sugarcane, millets, black pepper, various grams, coconuts, beans, cotton, plantain, tamarind and sandalwood.
Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas (320-550 CE),
Noboru Karashima’s research of the agrarian society in South India during the Chola Empire (875-1279) reveals that during the Chola rule land was transferred and collective holding of land by a group of people slowly gave way to individual plots of land, each with their own irrigation system.
Late Middle Ages – Early Modern Era (1200–1757 CE)
The construction of water works and aspects of water technology in India is described in Arabic and Persian works.
Agricultural ‘zones’ were broadly divided into those producing rice, wheat or millets.
The Encyclopedia Britannica further details the many crops introduced to India during this period of extensive global discourse:
Introduced by the Portuguese, cultivation of tobacco spread rapidly. The Malabār Coast was the home of spices, especially black pepper, that had stimulated the first European adventures in the East. Coffee had been imported from Abyssinia and became a popular beverage in aristocratic circles by the end of the century. Tea, which was to become the common man’s drink and a major export, was yet undiscovered, though it was growing wild in the hills of Assam. Vegetables were cultivated mainly in the vicinity of towns. New species of fruit, such as the pineapple, papaya, and cashew nut, also were introduced by the Portuguese. The quality of mango and citrus fruits was greatly improved.
Land management was particularly strong during the regime of Akbar the Great (reign: 1556-1605), under whom scholar-bureaucrat Todarmal formulated and implemented elaborated methods for agricultural management on a rational basis.
Colonial British Era (1757–1947 CE)
Few Indian commercial crops made it to the global market under the British Raj in In India. Cotton, indigo, opium, and rice were known in particular.
Roy (2006) comments on the Influence of the world wars on the Indian agricultural system:
Agricultural performance in the interwar period (1918–1939) was dismal. From 1891 to 1946, the annual growth rate of all crop output was 0.4 percent, and food-grain output was practically stagnant. There were significant regional and intercrop differences, however, nonfood crops doing better than food crops. Among food crops, by far the most important source of stagnation was rice. Bengal had below-average growth rates in both food and nonfood crop output, whereas Punjab and Madras were the least stagnant regions. In the interwar period, population growth accelerated while food output decelerated, leading to declining availability of food per head. The crisis was most acute in Bengal, where food output declined at an annual rate of about 0.7 percent from 1921 to 1946, when population grew at an annual rate of about 1 percent.
The British regime in India did supply the irrigation works but rarely on the scale required.
Republic of India (1947 CE onwards)
Special programs were undertaken to improve food and cash crops supply.
Since independence, India has become one of the largest producers of wheat, edible oil, potato, spices, rubber, tea, fishing, fruits, and vegetables in the world. The Ministry of Agriculture oversees activities relating to agriculture in India. Various institutions for agriculture related operations in India include Indian Agricultural Research Institute (est. 1905), Allahabad Agricultural Institute (est. 1910), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (est. 1929), Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (est. 1949), National Dairy Development Board (est. 1965), and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (est. 1982).
During 2003-04, agriculture accounted for 22 % of India’s GDP and employed 58 per cent of the country’s workforce.
The green revolution introduced high yielding varieties of crops which also increased the usage of fertilizers and pesticides.
See also
- Forestry in India
- Fishing in India
Gallery
Onset of the Southwest monsoon in India.
Natural vegetation in India.
Natural vegetation zones in South Asia.
Notes
- ^ a b c Singh and Yadava, page 508
- ^ a b Gupta, page 54
- ^ a b c d Harris & Gosden, page 385
- ^ a b Lal, R. (August 2001), “Thematic evolution of ISTRO: transition in scientific issues and research focus from 1955 to 2000″, Soil and Tillage Research 61(1-2): 3-12
- ^ a b c d e f g h i agriculture, history of. Encyclopedia Britannica 2008.
- ^ a b c d Shaffer, pages 310-311
- ^ a b c d e Gupta, page 57
- ^ a b c Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui, “Water Works and Irrigation System in India during Pre-Mughal Times”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Feb., 1986), pp. 52–77.
- ^ a b c Shaffer, page 315
- ^ a b c Palat, page 63
- ^ a b Kumar, page 182
- ^ Roy 2006
- ^ Kumar 2006
- ^ a b Baber, page 19
- ^ Possehl, Gregory L. (1996)
- ^ Stein, page 47
- ^ Wisseman & Williams, page 127
- ^ a b Kerbs & Kerbs, pages 4-5
- ^ a b Peter Sharpe (26 October 1998). “Sugar Cane: Past and Present”. Southern Illinois University.
- ^ Nene, Y. L., Rice Research in South Asia through Ages, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106)
- ^ a b Smith, C. Wayne (2000)
- ^ rice. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008.
- ^ Murphy, page 178
- ^ a b Kahn, page 92
- ^ a b Rodda & Ubertini, page 279
- ^ Rodda & Ubertini, page 161
- ^ Encyclopedia Britannica (2008). jute.
- ^ a b c d Gupta, page 58
- ^ Other sources reveal that the soils and seasons had been classified and meteorological observations of rainfall charted for the different regions of the Mauryan Empire, which comprised nearly the whole subcontinent and territory to the northwest.—agriculture, history of. Encyclopedia Britannica 2008.
- ^ a b Venkata Subramanian, page 7
- ^ Pillay, pages 50-51
- ^ Shaffer, page 311
- ^ a b Kieschnick (2003)
- ^ a b Kieschnick, page 258
- ^ Donkin, page 92
- ^ Karashima 1984, 3-35 is cited by Palat on page 63 of Food and Agrarian Orders in the World-Economy
- ^ a b c d Roy, page 20
- ^ a b c Roy, page 21
- ^ a b c Kumar, page 143
- ^ Kumar, pages 144-145
- ^ Kumar, pages 145-148
- ^ Kumar, page 148
- ^ Indian agriculture. Indian Embassy to Armenia.
- ^ a b c d Indian agriculture. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry.
- ^ Pimentel, D. & Marcia Pimentel (1990). “Comment: Adverse Environmental Consequences of the Green Revolution”. Population and Development Review 16: 329-332.
- ^ Ray, P. K., Prasad, A. K. and Nandan, R. (1985). “Pesticides – environmental problem”. Science and Culture 57: 363–371.
- ^ Bhattacharyya, P. & G. Chakraborty (2005). “Current status of organic farming in India and other countries” (PDF). Indian Journal of Fertilizers 1 (9): 111-123.
References
- Baber, Zaheer (1996). The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791429199.
- Balambal, V. (1998). Studies in the History of the Sangam Age. Delhi: Kalinga Publications.
- Donkin, Robin A. (August 2003). Between East and West: The Moluccas and the Traffic in Spices Up to the Arrival of Europeans. Diane Publishing Company. ISBN 0871692481.
- Gupta, Anil K. in Origin of agriculture and domestication of plants and animals linked to early Holocene climate amelioration, Current Science, Vol. 87, No. 1, 10 July 2004 59. Indian Academy of Sciences.
- Harris, David R. and Gosden, C. (1996). The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia: Crops, Fields, Flocks And Herds. Routledge. ISBN 1857285387.
- Kahn, Charles (2005).World History: Societies of the Past. Portage & Main Press. ISBN 1553790456.
- Kieschnick, John (2003). The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691096767.
- Krebs, Robert E. & Krebs, Carolyn A. (2003). Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313313423.
- Kumar, R. in “Land Records-Issues and Innovations: A case study of Bhojpur, Bihar”. Habibullah, Wajahat & Ahuja, Manoj (2005). Computerisation of land records. SAGE. ISBN 0761933476.
- Lynda Shaffer in “Southernization”. Adas, Michael (2000), Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History. Temple University Press. ISBN 1566398320.
- Murphy, Denis J. (2007). People, Plants and Genes: The Story of Crops and Humanity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199207135.
- Palat, R. A. in “Historical Transformations in Agrarian systems Based on Wet-Rice Cultivation: Toward an Alternative Model of Social Change”. McMichael, Philip (1995). Food and Agrarian Orders in the World-Economy. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313293996.
- Possehl, Gregory L. (1996). Mehrgarh in Oxford Companion to Archaeology, edited by Brian Fagan. Oxford University Press.
- Pillay, J.K. (1972). Educational system of the ancient Tamils. Madras.
- Rodda & Ubertini (2004). The Basis of Civilization–water Science?. International Association of Hydrological Science. ISBN 1901502570.
- Roy, T. (2006). “Agricultural Prices and Production, 1757–1947″ in Encyclopedia of India (vol. 1), edited by Stanley Wolpert. 20-22. Thomson Gale: ISBN 0-684-31350-2.
- Shaffer, Lynda N. in “Southernization”. Adas, Michael Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History. Temple University Press (2001). ISBN 1566398320.
- Singh, Vijay P. & Yadava, R. N. (2003). Water Resources System Operation: Proceedings of the International Conference on Water and Environment. Allied Publishers. ISBN 817764548X.
- Smith, C. Wayne (2000). Sorghum: Origin, History, Technology, and Production. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0471242373.
- Stein, Burton (1998). A History of India. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631205462.
- Thulasamma, L. (2006). “Technical Change in Agriculture, 1952–2000″ in Encyclopedia of India (vol. 4), edited by Stanley Wolpert. 143-148. Thomson Gale: ISBN 0-684-31353-7.
- Venkata Subramanian, T.K. (1988). Environment and urbanisation in early Tamilakam. Thanjavur: Tamil University.
- Wisseman, S. U. & Williams, W. S. (1994). Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials. Routledge. ISBN 288124632X.
External links
- Indian Agriculture. U.S. Library of Congress.
- Indian Council for Agricultural Research Home Page.
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