Rajasthan Agriculture and Livestock: Crops and Breeds

Rajasthan is the largest state of India by area and the driest, so its farming is a study in making a little water go a long way. More than half of the cropped area is rainfed, the monsoon reaches the west late and leaves early, and one failed spell of rain can decide the whole kharif harvest. Even so the state supplies the country with much of its pearl millet, its mustard oil and its guar gum, and it carries the largest camel herd and the largest wool clip in India. Examiners like the topic because it joins physical geography to the rural economy: a paper may ask for the crop of a district, the state that leads in a crop, the home tract of a cattle breed or the venue of a cattle fair.

Crop seasons and the water that decides them

Rajasthan grows three crop seasons. Kharif crops are sown with the first rains of June and July and harvested in September and October. Rabi crops are sown in October and November on stored soil moisture or on irrigation and are harvested in March and April. Zaid is the short summer season between the two, used for fodder, melons and vegetables wherever water is assured.

Wells and tube wells irrigate far more land in Rajasthan than canals do, which is why the falling water table is the state's central farming problem. Canal irrigation is concentrated in the north-west, where the Indira Gandhi Canal carries Sutlej and Beas water from the Harike barrage into Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer, and in the older Gang Canal tract of Sri Ganganagar. The Chambal project waters Kota, Bundi and Baran in the south-east and the Mahi Bajaj Sagar project waters Banswara and Dungarpur in the south. Because canal water turned sand into wheat and cotton fields, Sri Ganganagar is called the food basket of Rajasthan.

What Rajasthan grows

Crops in which Rajasthan leads the country

Rajasthan is the largest producer of bajra, of rapeseed and mustard, of guar or cluster bean, of moth bean and of isabgol, the psyllium whose husk goes into medicines. Guar gum milled in the Jodhpur, Bikaner and Barmer belt is an industrial export used in oil drilling and food processing. Almost all of India's henna comes from Sojat in Pali district. Opium is grown under central licence in Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh and Bhilwara. Jhalawar is the orange district of the state, Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh grow kinnow, and jojoba, an oilseed shrub brought from the American deserts, is raised at Fatehpur in Sikar and Dhindhol near Jaipur.

Livestock, the second half of the rural economy

Animal rearing carries the desert household through a drought year, when the crop fails but the herd does not. Rajasthan has the largest camel population of any state, and the camel was declared the state animal of Rajasthan in 2014. The state also shears the largest quantity of wool in India and stands just behind Uttar Pradesh among the milk producing states. Saras is the milk brand of the Rajasthan Co-operative Dairy Federation.

Research institutes and cattle fairs

The research stations are themselves examinable. The Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute works at Avikanagar in Tonk district, the National Research Centre on Camel at Bikaner, the Central Arid Zone Research Institute at Jodhpur and the Central Institute for Arid Horticulture at Bikaner. Teaching is spread over several universities, among them Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University at Jobner in Jaipur, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology at Udaipur, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University at Bikaner and the Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Bikaner.

Livestock changes hands at fairs that are also cultural events. Pushkar in Ajmer holds the camel fair at Kartik Purnima, Nagaur holds the Ramdeoji cattle fair known for its bullocks, Tilwara in Barmer holds the Mallinath fair known for horses, Parbatsar in Nagaur holds the Tejaji fair, Jhalarapatan in Jhalawar the Gomti Sagar fair and Kolayat in Bikaner the Kapil Muni fair. Learning the fair with its district and its animal answers a question type that returns almost every year.