Chapter 15: Agriculture – III: Cash Crops (1)
Sometime in late October the crushing season opens, and for the next several months a sugar mill runs almost without stopping. The reason for that hurry is inside the cane itself. Sugarcane stores its sugar in the stem, and the greatest accumulation of it sits in the lowest part of the stalk, nearest the ground. So the harvester works with a long curved knife and cuts as close to the soil as possible. A cut made even a little high leaves sugar standing in the field. From the moment the stalk falls, a clock starts running. Cut cane begins to lose its sugar content, and if more than 24 hours pass between the field and the mill’s rollers, part of the crop’s value has already gone. The cane must reach the factory fast, which is why the distance from farm to mill matters here as much as rainfall does. The plant took 10 to 18 months to grow, through a warm wet season it needed and a cool dry winter it needed just as much. All of that can be lost to a day’s delay on a road. Cash crops are grown to be sold, and this chapter is about what that single fact does to the way they are farmed.
Diagram
Fig. 15.A1 Caption: The sugar is not spread evenly through the cane, which is why the cut is made low. Brief: Draw one sugarcane stalk standing in soil, over 3.5 m tall, with the jointed stem labelled; shade the stem darkest at the base and lighter towards the top to show where sucrose accumulates; mark a dashed cutting line just above ground level and a second, rejected line higher up with the sugar left below it shaded.
15.1 Cash Crops
Growing food crops is essential for our basic survival. A family that grows rice or wheat is, first of all, feeding itself. But farming in India does not stop at survival, and alongside the food crops we also grow commercial crops, or cash crops, which enhance our life.
Cash crops are those that are primarily grown for sale, and not only for use by the grower’s family. Sugarcane is the clearest example. A household cannot eat three and a half metres of cane; the crop only makes sense if there is a mill waiting to buy it. The decision to plant a cash crop is therefore a decision about a market as much as about the field.
Why A Farmer Grows For Sale
Cash crops matter beyond the farm gate for two reasons the chapter sets out. They provide the raw material to agro-based industries, that is, to industries whose raw material comes straight off a field rather than out of a mine. Without cane there is no sugar mill, and without oilseeds there is no oil mill.
They also provide capital to the farmer, and capital is money that can be put back to work. That money is used not only to improve living conditions at home, but also to improve farming practices in the next season, through better seed, better tools and better irrigation.
The Main Cash Crops
The main cash crops of India are grouped into five categories: (a) Sugarcane, grown for the sugar stored in its stem. (b) Oilseeds, grown for the oil pressed out of the seed. (c) Beverages, which are tea and coffee. (d) Fibres, which are cotton and jute. (e) Others, which include tobacco and rubber.
The grouping is by what the crop is finally used for, not by where it grows, and this is worth noticing. Two crops in the same category may be raised in completely different climates, while two crops in different categories may share a field. Fig. 15.A2 sets the categories out as a branching tree.
Flowchart
Fig. 15.A2 Caption: The main cash crops of India, grouped by what the crop is finally used for. Nodes: cash crops → sugarcane; cash crops → oilseeds → groundnut / mustard / soya bean; cash crops → beverages → tea / coffee; cash crops → fibres → cotton / jute; cash crops → others → tobacco / rubber
This chapter takes the first two branches only. Sugarcane comes first, and then the oilseeds, studied through groundnut, mustard and soya bean.
15.2 Sugarcane
Sugarcane is a member of the grass family. It is a tall tropical variety with a hard, thick stem which grows to a height of 3.5 m or more, and the sugar is stored in that stem rather than in a root, a leaf or a fruit. The plant probably originated in eastern Asia.
India has the world’s largest area under sugarcane. The crop is the main source of sugar, gur and khandsari, the last two being traditional unrefined sugars made by boiling down the cane juice, and it holds a pre-eminent position as a cash crop in the country.
Diagram
Fig. 15.1 Caption: Sugarcane. Brief: Photograph of a standing sugarcane field; source a close view showing the jointed hard stems, their thickness and the long leaves, with the height of the crop clear against a person or a field boundary.
Very little of the plant is wasted. Sugarcane processing generates bagasse, which is the crushed fibre left behind after the juice is squeezed out, along with molasses, the thick dark syrup that will not crystallise, and press mud, the solid residue filtered out of the juice. These are used to produce bioethanol, which is a fuel made by fermenting sugars, along with electricity and other products. Counting all of this together, sugarcane accounts for the largest value of production amongst all the commercial crops.
15.2.1 Climatic Conditions
Temperature
Sugarcane matures in 10 to 18 months depending on the climate, so the plant occupies the field for far longer than a season. It grows best in areas with 20 °C to 26 °C temperature, and inside that band the response is not flat. Growth starts at a mean temperature of about 20 °C, accelerates with an increase in temperature up to 24 °C, and finally stops at 26 °C.
Frost is fatal for the sugarcane crop. A frost is a fall of air temperature to freezing point at ground level, and it kills the standing cane outright. Yet a short cool dry winter season during ripening and harvesting is ideal, because cool is not the same thing as freezing. Mild cool weather slows the plant’s growth and lets sugar build up in the stem, while a frost destroys the tissue that was storing it.
Rainfall
Sugarcane grows well in tropical regions with 100 to 150 cm of rainfall well distributed throughout the year. The phrase ‘well distributed’ is doing real work here. A total is not a supply, and 120 cm falling in three months is a different thing for a crop standing for over a year than the same 120 cm spread across twelve.
Where the rain does not come evenly, water is supplied by hand. Irrigation is necessary in areas of lower rainfall, or even in areas of higher rainfall during the long dry spells.
Both too much rain and too little damage the crop, in different ways: (a) The sucrose content decreases if heavy rains continue for long, because the plant keeps growing watery tissue instead of storing sugar. (b) A rainfall deficiency produces a fibrous crop, in which the stem is woody and holds little juice.
A slightly dry sunny weather is therefore necessary during the ripening stage of the cane, when the sugar is being laid down and the plant should no longer be putting its energy into new growth.
15.2.2 Soil
Sugarcane is grown in well drained rich alluvial, heavy loams or lava soil. Alluvium is the fine material a river lays down across its plain; a loam is a soil holding a workable mixture of sand, silt and clay; and lava soil is the black soil weathered out of old lava rock. What these have in common is depth and the ability to hold moisture without waterlogging, which suits a plant standing in the same field for a year or more.
In practice the crop appears on two very different soils in two parts of the country. It is largely grown on the loams and clayey loams of the Northern Plains, and on the black soils, brown or reddish loams and laterites of Peninsular India, the peninsula being the triangular southern block of the country below the plains.
The crop takes a heavy toll on whatever it grows in. Sugarcane exhausts the fertility of the soil, drawing out nutrients faster than a short-season crop does. Hence the soil is supplemented with manures and nitrogenous fertilizers, that is, fertilizers supplying nitrogen, the nutrient the cane strips out fastest.
15.2.3 Methods Of Cultivation
Sowing
Sugarcane is a labour intensive crop, meaning it needs many hands over a long period rather than a short burst of machine work. The crop is kept weed-free and irrigated frequently if there are no timely rains. Most of the crop is planted just before the hot season, a little earlier in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Sugarcane is planted by three methods, and the difference between them is what goes into the ground.
The first is the sett method. New canes are usually planted by taking cuttings from old plants. These cuttings, known as setts, quickly become established, and after a few days buds sprout to form new stalks. Four to five stalks grow from each cutting. The sugarcane then takes anything from 8 months to a year to mature.
The second is ratooning. In this method, during the first harvest the sugarcane is cut leaving a little bit of the stalk in the soil with the roots. The stalk soon puts out new shoots, or ratoons. The second or any other successive crop obtained from the roots of the leftover crop is called Ratoon. Sugarcane is a perennial crop, which means the same plant lives on from year to year, and in theory the same plants could continue to produce canes for many years.
In practice they are not allowed to. The yield from each successive ratoon crop is lesser than the previous one. After two or three ratoons the old roots are no longer economical, and new setts must be planted.
Flowchart
Fig. 15.A3 Caption: Ratooning saves a planting each time, but only for two or three rounds before the field must start again. Nodes: setts planted → first crop harvested, stump and roots left in soil → ratoons sprout from the leftover roots → second crop, thinner canes with less sucrose → third crop, yield lower again → after two or three ratoons roots no longer economical → back to setts planted
Ratooning is chosen for what it saves. Its advantages are: (a) The crop does not need to be planted again, so it saves labour. (b) The ratoon matures early, because the root system is already in place and the plant does not begin from a cutting. (c) The method is cheaper, as it does not involve any extra inputs.
Its disadvantages follow from the same ageing roots: (a) The yield is of thinner canes with lower sucrose content, so the mill gets less sugar from the same weight. (b) There is more risk of pests and diseases, because the field is never cleared and replanted.
The third method is by seeds. Sugarcane can be planted by seeds, but this method has become obsolete. It is practised only in some states where yield is not high.
However it is started, the crop goes into the ground the same way. Sugarcane is planted in furrows, which are the shallow trenches opened by the plough, and covered with soil. There is enough distance between rows, 30 to 45 cm, to facilitate hoeing, weeding, irrigation and harvesting; a worker and the water both need room to move down the line. In some parts of the country it is cultivated as a mixed crop, sharing the field with another crop.
Diagram
Fig. 15.A4 Caption: Setts are laid in furrows and covered, with the rows spaced so that a worker can pass between them. Brief: Cross-section of a planted field, three furrows shown, a sett lying horizontally in each and covered with soil, buds sprouting upward into new stalks; mark the 30 to 45 cm spacing between rows with a dimension arrow.
Harvesting
Sugarcane is harvested before the cane begins to flower. In northern India it is harvested before the winters, to protect it from frost. The crop is cut by hand using a long curved knife.
The stalks must be cut as near as possible to the ground, because the greatest accumulation of sucrose is in the base of the stem. Sucrose is the sugar the mill is actually buying, so cane left standing in the field is money left standing in the field.
The cane harvest and crushing operations begin in October to November and continue till April all over the country. The harvest and the crushing are one operation, not two, which is why they share a season.
Processing
After harvesting, the canes are taken quickly to the mill, for they must be processed within 24 hours of cutting to preserve the sugar content. In the mills the cane is crushed between rollers and then boiled with lime. The sugarcane juice crystallises and forms raw brown sugar.
This process should not be confused with refining, which re-processes the raw sugar to make brown and white sugar of various grades. Milling turns cane into raw sugar; refining turns raw sugar into the grades sold in a shop.
Flowchart
Fig. 15.A5 Caption: The cane must reach the rollers within a day, and most of what is crushed never becomes mill sugar at all. Nodes: cane cut low in the field → carried to mill within 24 hours → crushed between rollers → juice boiled with lime → juice crystallises → raw brown sugar → refining → brown and white sugar of various grades; crushing also yields bagasse, molasses and press mud → bioethanol, electricity and other products
Where the crop finally goes is worth stating plainly. About two-thirds of the sugarcane produced in the country is used by the gur and khandsari industries, and only about a third of it is used to make sugar. The mill is not the whole story of Indian cane; much of it never leaves the local economy at all.
15.2.4 Distribution
The Main Regions
Sugarcane is cultivated throughout India between 8 °N and 32 °N latitude, a spread that runs from the far south of the peninsula to the northern plains, which is why the crop’s calendar differs so much from one end of the country to the other.
There are three main areas of sugarcane production in India: (a) The Sutlej-Ganga plain from Punjab to Bihar, in the north. (b) The black soil area from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu. (c) Coastal Andhra Pradesh and the Krishna valley.
Map 15.1 shows these areas shaded. Read it for pattern rather than for quantity: shading tells you where the crop is grown, not how much comes from each district, and at a scale of 1:24,000,000 one centimetre on the paper stands for 240 km on the ground, so a small patch of colour may cover several districts and hide the unplanted land between them.
Map
Map 15.1 Caption: Sugarcane producing areas of India. Brief: Political outline map of India showing the full extent of India as officially defined, with state boundaries; shade the sugarcane producing areas in a single tint; mark the Tropic of Cancer, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, the Lakshadweep Sea, the Andaman Sea, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; key to read ‘Sugarcane’; scale 1:24,000,000 shown; no production figures to be printed.
North India
Geographically, the North Indian states are the chief suppliers of sugarcane. The belt lying between Bihar and Punjab has the largest sugarcane growing tract, especially the Sutlej-Ganga plain.
Four conditions come together there: (a) The alluvium is fertile and is renewed every year by the numerous mountain streams flowing in this area, so the soil is not exhausted as fast as the crop exhausts it. (b) Temperatures are sufficiently high for a crop that needs 20 °C to 26 °C. (c) Rainfall is sufficient for a crop needing 100 to 150 cm. (d) The water level is high, which means groundwater sits close to the surface and enables easy irrigation through the dry spells.
South India
South India, on the other hand, has a higher yield per hectare, a longer harvesting season and better quality of the crop. A hectare is a square of about 100 m by 100 m, so yield per hectare is a measure of how hard each piece of land is working, which is a different question from how much land is under the crop.
The southern advantage comes from three things the chapter names: (a) A favourable maritime climate, moderated by the sea on both sides, free from the effects of the summer loo, which is the searing dry wind of the northern plains, and free from winter frost. (b) Sufficient irrigation. (c) New farming techniques.
The south is not without difficulties. In southern parts of India the sugarcane crop has to face stiff competition from other cash crops like cotton and groundnut, which want the same fields. Furthermore, the winter rainfall along the Tamil Nadu coast is not beneficial for the crop, since cane ripening in winter wants dry sunny weather rather than rain.
Besides Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are the other sugar producing states in the country. Tamil Nadu is the largest producer of sugarcane in South India. The share of other states like Gujarat, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal and Telangana is less than 10 per cent of the total output of the crop.
Diagram
Fig. 15.2 Caption: Sugarcane harvesting. Brief: Photograph of a worker cutting standing cane by hand in a dense field; the long curved knife and the low position of the cut must be visible, with the height of the cane clear against the worker.
15.2.5 Problems Of Sugarcane Cultivators
The crop that pays well is also the crop that is hardest to grow, and the difficulties reported by sugarcane cultivators are these: (a) Sugarcane is a soil exhausting crop, and therefore the cost of fertilisers increases the cost of production. (b) The farms are far from the mills, and a delay of more than 24 hours between harvesting and crushing reduces the sugar content. (c) The cost of transport increases the cost of production. (d) The crop is an annual crop and therefore the farmers are unable to cultivate any other crop, thereby limiting their income. (e) It requires a high input of irrigation means. (f) The price is fixed by the government, which is most of the times not profitable for the farmers.
Read points (b) and (c) together, because they are the same fact seen twice. Distance from the mill costs the farmer once in freight and again in lost sucrose, and unlike weather it is not a condition that changes from year to year.
15.2.6 Role Of Government In Solving Farmers’ Problems
Against these difficulties, the government’s response has worked along three lines: (a) Co-operative societies have been set up by the government to help the farmers, so that growers act together rather than one at a time. (b) Rural credit banks provide loans to farmers at a low interest rate for buying farming tools, high yielding variety seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. (c) Better irrigation means are developed, to provide regular water for the irrigation of sugarcane farms.
Each of these answers a difficulty listed above, and the match is worth tracing: credit at low interest meets the cost of fertiliser, and developed irrigation meets the crop’s high demand for water. The one problem in the list that none of the three touches directly is the distance between the farm and the mill.
15.3 Oilseeds
An oilseed is grown for what can be pressed out of the seed rather than for the seed itself. All the principal oilseeds are grown in India, and the list is a long one: groundnut, linseed, castor, sesamum, soya bean, cotton seeds, sunflower and mustard, among others.
These oils are used for various purposes. They are used as industrial raw materials in the manufacture of paints, varnishes, hydrogenated oils, soaps and lubricants, hydrogenation being the process that turns a liquid oil into a solid fat.
Edible And Non-Edible Oils
The important division among these oils is whether they can be eaten. Vegetable oils produced from the seeds of groundnut, mustard, sesamum, safflower, sunflower and soya bean are edible, and they are commonly used as a cooking medium. Linseed oil and castor oil sit on the other side of that line. Linseed oil, obtained from flaxseeds, is used for cooking food in some areas of central India, yet it is categorised as a non-edible oil, and castor oil too is non-edible.
Among all of them, groundnut is the leading oilseed, followed by mustard.
Nothing is thrown away after pressing. Oilcake, that is, the residue left after the extraction of oil from the oilseeds, is used as a fodder for animals and also serves as a good manure in the fields. An oilseed field therefore feeds three things at once: a kitchen, a factory and a herd.
Flowchart
Fig. 15.A6 Caption: What comes out of an oilseed, and where each part of it goes. Nodes: oilseed crushed → oil / oilcake; oil → edible (groundnut, mustard, sesamum, safflower, sunflower, soya bean) → cooking medium; oil → non-edible (linseed, castor) → paints, varnishes, hydrogenated oils, soaps and lubricants; oilcake → fodder for animals / manure in the fields
15.3.1 Groundnut
Groundnut is also known as peanut or monkey nut. It is believed that groundnut was introduced in India from Brazil during the 16th century, so a crop that now covers much of the peninsula is not originally an Indian plant at all.
It contains about 42 per cent oil, which is extracted from the nuts found in the roots of the plant. That is close to half the weight of the nut, and it is the reason groundnut leads the oilseeds.
Its uses run across the kitchen, the factory and the cattle shed: (a) It is mainly used for the manufacture of hydrogenated oil. (b) It is also used in making margarine, medical emulsions and soap. (c) Groundnut oil is used as a cooking medium. (d) Its oil cake is used as cattle feed. (e) The nuts are eaten raw, roasted, salted or sweetened.
Diagram
Fig. 15.3 Caption: Groundnuts. Brief: Photograph of a lifted groundnut plant with the whole root system exposed, the pods clearly attached below ground level and the wrinkled shells visible; soil still clinging to the roots.
15.3.1.1 Climatic Conditions
Groundnut thrives well in the tropical and sub-tropical climates and is highly susceptible to frost. Its season, though, is not the same everywhere. The groundnut is a rabi crop in Odisha and in the southern states, sown in the cooler months after the monsoon has passed, while in the rest of India it is a kharif crop, sown with the onset of the monsoon rains.
Groundnut requires about 20 °C to 25 °C temperature. Dry weather is needed during the time of ripening, which for this crop means dry conditions in the soil itself, since that is where the pod fills out.
Groundnuts require light to moderate rainfall between 50 and 100 cm, and the rainfall should be well distributed. Four conditions damage the crop adversely: (a) Prolonged drought, which leaves the plant without water through its short growing period. (b) Continuous rains. (c) Stagnant water, which stands around the developing pods instead of draining away. (d) Frost, to which the crop is highly susceptible.
Where the rain is not enough, the water is brought in. In Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra the crop is raised under irrigation.
15.3.1.2 Soil
Sandy loams, loams and well-drained black soils, which allow enough of aeration, are considered suitable for groundnut cultivation. Aeration means air moving freely through the spaces between soil particles, and a heavy, packed soil does not allow it.
The red, yellow and black cotton soils of Peninsular India suit it well. Such light soils are essential as the nut ripens in the soil. This is the whole locational argument for groundnut in one line: the crop’s fruit develops underground, so the soil is not merely a rooting medium but the place where the harvest is made.
15.3.1.3 Methods Of Cultivation
The sandy soil is ploughed first. Then the seeds are sown by broadcasting or drilling in June or July. Broadcasting is scattering the seed by hand across the field, while drilling places it in lines at a set depth, which uses less seed and makes weeding easier.
What happens next is unusual enough to be worth following step by step. When the plants mature, they flower. After self pollination the flower stalk elongates, turns downwards and buries the fruit, where it matures. The mature fruits have wrinkled shells with one to four seeds per pod. The whole crop takes 4 to 5 months to be ready for harvest.
Flowchart
Fig. 15.A7 Caption: The groundnut flower pushes its own fruit into the ground, which is why the crop is lifted rather than cut. Nodes: sandy soil ploughed → seed sown by broadcasting or drilling in June or July → plants mature → flowering → self pollination → flower stalk elongates and turns downwards → fruit buried in the soil → pod ripens underground over 4 to 5 months → entire plant including roots removed from the soil → groundnuts dried → packed into sacks → sent to mills or commercial establishments
Groundnut is a kharif crop in most parts of India, where the crop is sown in June to July and harvested in November to December. But in Tamil Nadu it is a summer crop, sown in February to March and harvested in June to July.
At harvest, the entire plant, including the roots, is removed from the soil, because the crop is attached below ground. Groundnuts are then dried and packed into sacks to be sent to mills or commercial establishments.
15.3.1.4 Distribution
India is the second largest producer of groundnuts in the world after China. The crop occupies about 3.6 per cent of the country’s total cropped area and amounts to about 4 per cent of the total agricultural production.
Groundnut is a tropical crop and is extensively grown in Peninsular India. Telangana and Tamil Nadu together account for more than half of the groundnuts produced in India. Gujarat is the leading producer of groundnuts in India. The other groundnut producing states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Map 15.2 shows the areas producing groundnuts, mustard and soya bean together, on one tint. It tells you where these crops are grown, not which of the three is grown where, nor how much any district produces.
Map
Map 15.2 Caption: Areas producing groundnuts, mustard and soya bean in India. Brief: Political outline map of India showing the full extent of India as officially defined, with state boundaries; shade the oilseed producing areas in a single tint; mark the Tropic of Cancer, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, the Lakshadweep Sea, the Andaman Sea, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; key to read ‘Oilseeds’; scale 1:24,000,000 shown; the three crops are not to be separated by colour.
Table 15.1 sets the four crops of this chapter side by side, so that the conditions each one needs can be compared in one view.
15.3.2 Mustard
Mustard oil seeds are crushed to get an important edible oil. It is used extensively in northern India as a cooking medium. Its oil content is about 25 to 43 per cent, which is a wide range, so the yield of oil from a given weight of seed varies a good deal.
The plant is used well beyond its oil. In Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana the oil cake of mustard is an important cattle feed. The leaves of mustard, called sarson, are eaten as a vegetable in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and the plant is also used as a manure.
Mustard thrives only in cool climate, and that single fact explains where it is found. It is widely grown in the Sutlej-Ganga Plain, and a very small proportion is obtained from the states of Peninsular India, where the winters are not cool enough. It is grown mostly as a pure rabi crop, or mixed with wheat, gram and barley.
15.3.2.1 Climatic Conditions
Since mustard grows best in cool climate, it grows well in temperature which ranges from 10 °C to 20 °C. This is the lowest range of the four crops in this chapter, and it is why mustard belongs to the winter half of the year.
The crop requires rainfall varying between 25 and 40 cm. That is a small amount, less than a third of what sugarcane needs, and it fits a crop grown through the dry season.
Mustard can be grown on loams but slightly heavier soils are preferred. A heavier soil holds more clay, and so holds moisture longer, which matters where the rainfall is this light.
15.3.2.2 Methods Of Cultivation
Mustard is grown with wheat, gram and barley in rows, in the same climatic conditions. Growing it alongside another crop is possible precisely because all of them want the same cool, dry, low-rainfall winter.
Its growing period is four to five months. It is harvested about one or two weeks before the main crop and collected in heaps in the granary, which is the store where grain is kept. The seeds are then separated by getting them trampled under the bullocks’ feet.
The early harvest is the point worth holding on to. Because mustard ripens a fortnight ahead of the crop it shares a field with, it can be taken off without disturbing the wheat, gram or barley still standing.
15.3.2.3 Distribution
About 90 per cent of the area and production is contributed by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. The rest comes from Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.
The concentration is striking. Five states carry nine-tenths of the crop, and they are the states with a genuine cool season, which is exactly what the plant’s temperature range demanded.
15.3.3 Soya Bean
Soya bean has a high protein content, and this, rather than its oil alone, is what the crop is valued for. It is used as a substitute for animal protein.
The bean reaches the table in several forms: (a) The beans may be eaten as a vegetable. (b) They may be made into soya sauce. (c) They are consumed as soya milk. (d) They are eaten as tofu, which is soya cheese.
15.3.3.1 Climatic Conditions
Soya bean is a light coloured oval bean raised as a kharif crop. It is sown in the month of June. Care is, however, taken that the time-lag between the sowing time and the onset of heavy monsoon rains is about two weeks, since heavy rainfall adversely affects the germination of soya bean seeds.
That fortnight is a real piece of farming judgement. The seed needs moisture to germinate but is damaged by a downpour, so it must be in the ground early enough to have started and late enough not to be drowned.
The crop requires temperature in the range of 13 °C to 24 °C, and a temperature above 13 °C is necessary for the normal growth of soya bean. Soya bean grows in regions with 40 cm to 60 cm of rainfall, and the rainfall should be well distributed throughout the growing season. It is grown on friable loamy, acidic soils, friable meaning a soil that crumbles easily rather than setting hard.
15.3.3.2 Methods Of Cultivation
The crop needs three or four irrigations during its growing period, although at present soya bean is mainly a rainfed crop, that is, one grown on rainfall alone. Both statements hold at once: the plant does best with a few waterings, but in most fields it gets only what the monsoon delivers.
Soya bean crop has a high nitrogen requirement. Therefore, before sowing, its seeds are covered with jaggery and rhizobium, a nitrogen fixing bacteria that takes nitrogen from the air and makes it available to the plant.
Jaggery is doing more than one job in that coating: (a) It acts as a binding agent, holding the bacteria against the seed. (b) It is rich in carbohydrates, iron, magnesium and potassium. (c) It acts as a natural soil conditioner, improving the soil’s texture and nutrient content.
The crop is harvested in mid-October, when the leaves become yellow and the pods dry. The plant itself signals the harvest date, which is a useful thing in a crop that depends on the monsoon rather than on the calendar.
15.3.3.3 Distribution
The most important soya bean producing area lies in Madhya Pradesh and the adjoining districts of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Madhya Pradesh is the leading producer of soya bean.
Notice that the producing area is described as a block of adjoining districts crossing three state boundaries, not as three separate states. The crop follows a stretch of country with the right soil and rainfall, and the boundary lines drawn across it make no difference to the plant.
15.4 Summary
- Cash crops are grown primarily for sale, and not only for use by the grower’s family.
- They supply the raw material to agro-based industries.
- They give the farmer capital, which improves both living conditions and farming practices.
- The main cash crops are grouped as sugarcane, oilseeds, beverages such as tea and coffee, fibres such as cotton and jute, and others such as tobacco and rubber. This chapter studies the first two groups.
- Sugarcane is a tall member of the grass family, over 3.5 m high, which stores its sugar in the stem and probably originated in eastern Asia. India has the world’s largest area under sugarcane.
- Sugarcane needs 20 °C to 26 °C and 100 to 150 cm of well distributed rainfall, and matures in 10 to 18 months.
- Growth starts at about 20 °C, accelerates up to 24 °C and stops at 26 °C.
- Frost is fatal, but a short cool dry winter during ripening and harvesting is ideal.
- Long heavy rain lowers the sucrose content, while a rainfall deficiency gives a fibrous crop.
- It is grown on well drained rich alluvial soil, heavy loams or lava soil, on the loams and clayey loams of the Northern Plains and on the black soils, brown or reddish loams and laterites of Peninsular India.
- Sugarcane exhausts the fertility of the soil, so the land is supplemented with manures and nitrogenous fertilizers.
- The crop is labour intensive and is planted by three methods, in furrows 30 to 45 cm apart.
- The sett method plants cuttings from old plants, which sprout four to five stalks each and mature in 8 months to a year.
- Ratooning leaves a stump with roots after the first harvest, which puts out ratoons; the yield falls with each ratoon, so new setts are planted after two or three.
- Planting by seeds has become obsolete and survives only in some states where yield is not high.
- Ratooning saves a replanting, saves labour and matures early, but gives thinner canes with lower sucrose content and carries more risk of pests and diseases.
- Harvesting is done before the cane flowers, by hand with a long curved knife, cutting as near the ground as possible because the greatest accumulation of sucrose is in the base of the stem. Harvest and crushing run from October to November until April.
- The cane must reach the mill within 24 hours of cutting to preserve its sugar content. It is crushed between rollers, boiled with lime and crystallised into raw brown sugar; refining is the separate later stage that makes brown and white sugar of various grades.
- About two-thirds of the sugarcane produced goes to the gur and khandsari industries, and only about a third is used to make sugar. Bagasse, molasses and press mud yield bioethanol, electricity and other products.
- Sugarcane is cultivated between 8 °N and 32 °N latitude, in three main areas.
- The Sutlej-Ganga plain from Punjab to Bihar, which has the largest growing tract, helped by annually renewed alluvium, high temperatures, sufficient rainfall and a high water level.
- The black soil area from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu.
- Coastal Andhra Pradesh and the Krishna valley.
- South India has a higher yield per hectare, a longer harvesting season and better quality, because its maritime climate is free of the summer loo and winter frost, and it has sufficient irrigation and new farming techniques. It also faces competition from cotton and groundnut, and the winter rainfall on the Tamil Nadu coast does not suit the crop.
- Sugarcane cultivators face high fertiliser costs on an exhausting crop, distance from the mills with loss of sugar beyond 24 hours, transport costs, an annual crop that blocks other cultivation, heavy irrigation needs and a government-fixed price that is often unprofitable.
- The government’s response has been co-operative societies, rural credit banks lending at low interest for tools, high yielding variety seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, and developed irrigation.
- Oilseeds are grown for the oil pressed from the seed, and are used both in the kitchen and in industry.
- Groundnut, mustard, sesamum, safflower, sunflower and soya bean oils are edible; linseed and castor oils are non-edible.
- Oils go into paints, varnishes, hydrogenated oils, soaps and lubricants.
- Oilcake, the residue after extraction, is used as fodder and as manure.
- Groundnut is the leading oilseed, followed by mustard. It came to India from Brazil in the 16th century and contains about 42 per cent oil.
- Groundnut needs 20 °C to 25 °C and 50 to 100 cm of rainfall, and light, well-aerated sandy loams, loams or well-drained black soils, because the nut ripens in the soil. It is harmed by prolonged drought, continuous rains, stagnant water and frost.
- After self pollination the groundnut’s flower stalk turns downwards and buries the fruit, so the whole plant with its roots is lifted at harvest, 4 to 5 months after sowing.
- Groundnut is a kharif crop in most of India, sown June to July and harvested November to December, but a rabi crop in Odisha and the southern states, and a summer crop in Tamil Nadu.
- India is the second largest producer of groundnuts after China. The crop occupies about 3.6 per cent of the total cropped area and about 4 per cent of total agricultural production. Gujarat leads, while Telangana and Tamil Nadu together account for more than half the output.
- Mustard thrives only in a cool climate, at 10 °C to 20 °C with 25 to 40 cm of rainfall, on loams and slightly heavier soils, which is why it belongs to the Sutlej-Ganga Plain and to the rabi season.
- Mustard is grown in rows with wheat, gram and barley, ripens in four to five months and is harvested one or two weeks before the main crop. About 90 per cent of the area and production comes from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
- Soya bean is a kharif crop valued for its high protein content, needing 13 °C to 24 °C, 40 to 60 cm of rainfall and friable loamy, acidic soils.
- It is sown in June, about two weeks before the heavy monsoon rains, which damage germination.
- Its seeds are coated with jaggery and rhizobium to meet a high nitrogen requirement.
- It is harvested in mid-October when the leaves yellow and the pods dry.
- Madhya Pradesh is the leading producer of soya bean, with the adjoining districts of Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Flowchart
Fig. 15.A8 Caption: A cash crop is shaped at every stage by the fact that someone else will buy it. Nodes: cash crop chosen for sale → temperature, rainfall and soil decide where it can grow → method of cultivation (setts, ratooning or seed for sugarcane; broadcasting or drilling for oilseeds) → harvest timed to ripening (before flowering and before frost for cane; when pods dry for soya bean) → processing (mill within 24 hours for cane; crushing for oil) → main product (sugar, gur and khandsari; edible and non-edible oils) + by-product (bagasse, molasses, press mud; oilcake) → agro-based industry → capital returns to the farmer → back to cash crop chosen for sale
What This Chapter Cannot Tell You
The chapter names leading states, but it gives no production figures and no year for most of them, so it cannot show how far ahead a leader actually is, or whether that lead has since changed hands. Temperature and rainfall ranges tell you where a crop can grow, not how much of it any district actually produces.
The two maps shade whole regions at 1:24,000,000, which smooths away everything smaller than a few districts. A shaded belt does not mean the crop covers it, and Map 15.2 cannot separate groundnut from mustard from soya bean inside one tint.
The list of farmers’ problems and the list of government measures are both given as they stand, with no evidence in the chapter about how much any measure has actually changed a cultivator’s income. ## 15.5 Check Your Concepts
- Two crops in this chapter are timed against something else in the calendar.
- Soya bean is sown about two weeks before the heavy monsoon rains arrive. Why is that gap left?
- Mustard is harvested one or two weeks before the main crop it is grown with. Why does this suit the farmer?
- Using Table 15.1, name the crop that could be grown in a district where the temperature stays near 15 °C and the rainfall is about 45 cm. Give a reason for rejecting each of the other three crops.
- Trace what happens to sugarcane from the moment it is cut in the field until raw brown sugar is formed. Then explain why the distance between a farm and a mill costs the cultivator twice over.
- Map 15.2 shades the areas producing groundnuts, mustard and soya bean in a single tint, at a scale of 1:24,000,000. State two things this map cannot tell you about oilseed production in India.
- What is ratooning? State two advantages of ratooning.
- How does heavy rainfall affect the quality of sugarcane?
- What advantage does South India have over the north with reference to sugarcane cultivation?
- Which two states in India are the leading producers of groundnut? Why is groundnut mostly grown in Peninsular India?
- Give a geographical reason for each of the following:
- Frost is fatal for the sugarcane crop.
- A 40-45 cm distance between two saplings of sugarcane is maintained.
- The Sutlej-Ganga plains are the traditional growers of sugarcane.
15.6 Case-Based Questions
- The floods in Maharashtra in August-September 2019 submerged sugarcane fields for over 20 days. How did this affect farmers?