Factors Affecting Cropping Patterns

The cropping patterns may be affected by several factors and interplay of these factors. Some of these include physical and technical factors, economic factors, government agrarian policy, improvements in technology, availability of agricultural inputs and facilities etc.

Physical Factors Affecting Cropping Pattern

For any region, its cropping pattern depends on physical features such as soil, climate, weather, rainfall etc. Some of the citable examples are as follows:

• In dry areas of Rajasthan where there is scanty rainfall, people grow millets such as Bajra (pearl millet) and Sorghum – because these crops can be managed with less water.
• The water-logging in some parts of Punjab such as Ludhiana and Sangrur districts, the area under paddy has increased dramatically.
• Similarly, hilly area are more suitable for Tea and Coffee than cereal crops. The climate of Madhya Pradesh is also suitable for Soybean production, so it is largest state in terms of Soyabean production. Some parts of Madhya Pradesh, millets are being grown on newly reclaimed lands which were previously uncultivable.

Technical Factors and Input Availability Affecting Cropping Pattern

Apart from soil and climate conditions, the cropping pattern of a region would depend on nature and availability of the inputs such as irrigation, power, technology etc. If water is available abundantly, the farmers can think of double or triple cropping; otherwise they have to cultivate only one crop. Whenever a new irrigation facility is available in any area, the cropping pattern changes – for example, the farmers grow superior crops, are able to do crop rotation. In many parts of India, increased irrigation facilities have led to cultivation of sugarcane.

Narmada River: How Irrigation facilities can change cropping patterns?

Though it was controversial, yet the Sardaar Sarovar Project and Narmada main canal is expected to irrigate around 18 Lakh hectare of land in Gujarat, which is around 19% of total agricultural land of the state. It will help around 3393 villages in several districts of Gujarat such as Patan, Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Vadodara etc. These districts are known for Monocropping. Now with increased irrigation facilities, the farmers in these areas have started taking interest in growing different crops including fruits and vegetables. This would in near future significantly change the cropping patterns in these areas. These changes would reflect in (1) farmers are taking two crops in a year unlike earlier (2) growing more vegetables and fruits since horticulture can be done with drip irrigation. The state government is also encouraging crop diversification and focussing on less water-intensive crops.

Similarly, it is possible that because of lack of capital and agricultural pre-requisites, the farmers are unable to cultivate the right crops. As soon as these facilities are available, that crop pattern would change.

Mushroom Cultivation in Kashmir and Mule Dung as a factor

Mushrooms prove easy to cultivate Kashmir because they thrive on mule dung and paddy straw, which is locally available. In recent decades, Mushroom cultivation is flourishing in Kashmir.

Similarly, the availability of groundnut seed was a key factor that helped farmers to increase this its area in Madhya Pradesh.

Economic Factors Affecting Cropping Pattern

Economic motivations are major determinants of cropping patterns. The key economic factors are as follows:

Price and Income Maximisation

Prices influence the acreage under crops in two ways. Firstly, the price differential between two crops leads to change in cropping pattern in favour of crop that gives better returns. Secondly, the crops which assure more stable incomes get favoured by farmers. For example, in India, the cropping pattern in food grains has shifted from coarse cereals in 1950s-1960s to rice and wheat currently. Today, large proportion of the area under food grains is occupied by rice and wheat. One of the reasons is that in comparison to coarse cereals, the cultivation of rice and wheat food grains has become highly remunerative and productive under the influence of new technology. Traditionally, the Minimum Support Prices for wheat and rice have been maintained reasonably high. This has helped the farmers to increase their production. Thirdly, the biggest motivation is profit maximization. Farmers would choose that combination of crops which would give him maximum of income – this has resulted in rice-wheat, wheat-pulses, wheat-mustard kind of cropping patterns in several states of India. The better returns have induced farmers to shift towards horticulture (this is new trend) in recent years.

Changing Consumption Pattern

There has been a change in the consumption pattern and people have moved from coarse cereals to wheat and rice for their main dietary grain. This is because of the increase in the income of the people and coarse cereals being the inferior goods.

Farm Sizes

Size of the farm is also an important factor affecting cropping patterns. Generally, small farmers would do subsistence cultivation and so is more likely to grow cereals. However, this is not always correct. It is true that traditionally, the cash crops were mainly grown by medium and large land holders; but today, the small farmers also like to grow cash crops. As the income grows, the farmer would make adjustment to his crops in such a way that it fulfils his subsistence as well as money income needs.

Tenure

If there is crop sharing, obviously the landlord will have a say in determining the crops to be grown by tenant farmer.

Horticulture: How economy helps in changing cropping patterns?

In recent years, the farmers in India have been more engaged in growing fruits, vegetables, spices, floriculture and coconut – in improving the productivity of land, generating employment, providing nutritional security and improving their economic conditions. Horticulture covered over 18.7 million hectares of land in 2005-06, accounting for 9.5 per cent of the gross cropped area of the country (12.3 million hectares in 1991-92). Between 1992 and 2006 production of major horticultural crops rose from 97 million tonnes to 182 million tonnes. Today, India is one of the top producers of fruits and vegetables. We have discussed this trend in this module and also in GKToday here

Government Policy

Government is capable to influence the cropping pattern through its legislative and administrative measures. Subsidy on farm inputs  such as seeds, fertilizers have resulted in record production of food grains. Provision of irrigation, knowledge dissemination, technology demonstrations etc. have induced farmers to adopt new crops or use better crop combinations.

Government Policy and Cropping Pattern

How government policy affects cropping pattern can be understood by the changing strategic objectives of agricultural development in India. In 1960s, it was to maintain the prices of food grains at low level. The government significantly supported the growth of wheat and rice cultivation via its policy intervention, procurement and technology. This encouraged more and more farmers to grow rice and wheat. In 1960s to 1980s, it was to maximize food production using hybrid seeds and new technologies. In 1980s to 1990s, it was to go for a demand driven production pattern. Since 1990s, it was to reduce inputs of agricultural commodities. All these policies have reflected in change in cropping patterns.

Conclusion

The above discussion makes it clear that economic factors are most important factors affecting cropping patterns and every farmer would like to move to the combination of crops that maximize his income, which in turn would reflect on the agricultural economy of the country. Sadly, adopting a better cropping pattern is not possible for all farmers mainly due to absence of required facilities; and that is where role of governments becomes very important.