Madhya Pradesh Quiz: Agriculture and Crops of Madhya Pradesh

Soybean spread across the black soil of the Malwa plateau and the Narmada valley from the nineteen seventies and now covers more area in Madhya Pradesh than anywhere else in the country, which is why the state is nicknamed the soya state.

Gram, also called chana, is the biggest rabi pulse of the country and Madhya Pradesh grows more of it than any other state, mostly without irrigation, on the moisture that black soil holds after the monsoon.

This central belt, lying on the deep black soil of the Narmada valley and its Malwa fringe, grows the hard amber grained wheat known as Sharbati.

Opium may be grown in India only under a licence from the Central Bureau of Narcotics, and the permitted tract of Madhya Pradesh lies in these western Malwa districts, continuing across the border into Chittorgarh and Pratapgarh in Rajasthan.

The Kadaknath is a black fleshed fowl reared by tribal families in Jhabua and the neighbouring districts of western Madhya Pradesh.

Balaghat lies in the wet south eastern corner of the state, where rainfall is high and red and yellow soils suit paddy, and the district has long grown Chinnor, a short grained aromatic rice valued for its fragrance after cooking.

The Nimar plain along the lower Narmada, covering Khargone, Khandwa, Barwani and Burhanpur, has deep black cotton soil and a warm dry growing season, the two conditions cotton needs.

Burhanpur in the Nimar plain is the banana district of Madhya Pradesh. The warm climate, the deep soil of the Tapti valley and assured irrigation allow a long growing season, and the district sends bananas to markets in north India and exports a part of the crop.

Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya was established at Jabalpur in the nineteen sixties as the agricultural university for the whole state and still runs colleges and research stations across the eastern and central districts.

The Malwa plateau and the Narmada valley lie on the Deccan lava flows, and the weathering of that basalt produced the deep clayey black soil called regur.

Under this scheme the government does not buy and store the crop. The farmer sells in the regulated market as usual, and if the price received is below the price the government has declared for that crop, the gap is paid into the farmer's bank account.

Kharif crops are sown with the arrival of the south west monsoon in June and July and harvested in September and October, so they grow through the hottest and wettest months of the year.