Introduction:
India is an agricultural country. Most of her people are farmers. They produce generally three classes of crops, such as food-crops, commercial crops and oil-seeds.
Food-crops:
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The main food crops of India are rice, wheat, barely, maize and pulses. They are called cereals.
Rice:
Rice is the staple food of many of the Indians. Rice is obtained from paddy. Paddy is grown in Orissa. Andhra Pradesh, Madras, Bihar, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, madhya Pradesh, Assam and Maharashtra.
Wheat:
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Wheat is the staple food of the North Indians. It is winter crop. It is much more nutritious than rice it self. It grows mainly in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Barley:
Barley is a subsidiary food for the wheat-eaters. It is also diet for the patients. It is grown mainly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Maize:
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Maize is a subsidiary food for the wheat-eaters. It is grown mainly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Pulses:
Pulses are full of vegetable protein. The vegetarian people get protein from the pulses only. Pulses are known as gram too. Hence, we say green gram, black gram, horse gram, so on. Lentil is also a kind of pulse. Pulses are grown all over India.
Commercial crops:
The main commercial crops of India are cotton, jute, hemp, tea, coffee and tabacoo. Cotton, jute and hemp are known as fibrous crops. Because they are full of fibers. Cotton is used for making cloth. Indian cotton is not as good as American cotton. Because the fibres of the Indian cotton are very small. But the fibres of the American cotton are very long. Jute is used in making sacks and gunny bags. It grows mainly in Bengal. Hemp is used in making ropes and canvas. It grows mainly in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bengal.
Conclusion:
Since Independence, India has been passing through the plan-periods. She is making long strides in production crops though we do not feel it owing to increase in birth rate.