India

General information

• GNI per capita PPP$, 2000: 2,340
• Internal renewable water resources: 1,850 km³
• Incoming water flow: 235 km³
• Main food consumed: rice, wheat, sugar and honey, millet and sorghum, oil and fat
• Rice consumption, 1999: 74.2 kg milled rice per person per year

India extends between 8°4' and 37°6' N latitude and 68°7' and 97°25' E longitude. It measures about 3,214 km from north to south between the extreme latitudes and about 2,933 km from east to west between the extreme longitudes. It has a land frontier of about 15,200 km. The mainland comprises four regions: the great mountain zone, plains of the Ganges and the Indus rivers, the desert region, and the southern peninsula. On its northern frontiers, India is bounded by the Great Himalayas, which are three almost parallel ranges interspersed with large plateaus and valleys, such as the Kashmir and Kullu valleys, that are very fertile.

India lies in five agroecological zones: AEZ 1, characterized by warm and semiarid tropics; AEZ 2, warm subhumid tropics; AEZ 5, warm arid and semiarid subtropics with summer rainfall; AEZ 6, warm subhumid tropics with summer rainfall; and AEZ 8, cool subtropics with summer rainfall. Most rice is grown in AEZs 1, 2, and 6.

The climate of India can be described as tropical monsoon type. There are four seasons: winter (December-February), summer (March-May), rainy southwestern monsoon (June-September), and postmonsoon, also known as northeastern monsoon in the southern peninsula (October-November). The beginning of winter and summer periods differs in different regions. Four broad climatic regions are identified based on rainfall. The whole of Assam and the west coast of India lying at the foot of the Western Ghats and extending from the north of Mumbai (earlier Bombay) to Thiruvanthapuram (earlier Trivandrum) are areas of high rainfall.

The Rajasthan desert extending westward to Gilgit is a region of low precipitation. In between are two areas of moderately high and low rainfall. The area of high rainfall is a broad belt in the part of the peninsula merging northward with the Indian plains and southward with the coastal plains. The low rainfall area is a belt extending from the Punjab plains across the Vindhya mountains into the western part of the Deccan region, widening considerably in the Mysore plateau.

India is the world's second most populous nation, with a population in 2000 of 1,014 million growing at 1.7% per year. The rural population in 2000 was 726 million.

Recent developments in the rice sector
Agriculture is the backbone of India's economy, providing direct employment to about 67% of the working people in the country. It forms the basis of many premier industries of India, including the textile, jute, and sugar industries. Agriculture contributes about 29% to GDP; one-fourth of India's exports are agricultural products.

Rice is the staple food of 65% of the total population in India. It constitutes about 52% of the total food grain production and 55% of total cereal production. Food grains consist of cereals such as rice, wheat, sorghum, pearl millet, and maize as well as pulses. Food crops grow on nearly 70% of the gross sown area. Important commercial crops are cotton, jute, sugarcane, and tobacco.

Rough rice production reached 134 million t in 2000 from 112 million t in 1990, growing at 1.9% annually. The growth rate has slowed down significantly from 3.4% per year during the 1980s, mainly from the sluggish performance in the progressive states such as Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Haryana, as many districts in these states are approaching the economically optimum yield with the available technologies.

The rough rice yield has increased from 2.61 t/ha in 1990 to 3.01 t/ha in 2000, an annual growth of 1.4%. In Punjab and Tamil Nadu, where almost the entire rice land is irrigated, yield has reached 5.26 t/ha and 5.38 t/ha (1998), respectively. Yield fluctuates widely in Bihar and Orissa, states that suffer from drought and floods often in the same year, making rice cultivation a highly risky economic activity.

Adoption of modern technology
Since 1965, India has released about 640 improved rice varieties: 54% of them for irrigated areas, 27% for the rainfed lowland, and 19% for upland areas. The coverage of modern high-yielding rice varieties reached 78% of the rice harvested area by 1999. The rate of adoption varies from 67% in Assam in the northeast to more than 90% in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala in the south. Since a large area in the irrigated states of Punjab and Haryana in the northwest is allocated for the production of high-quality basmati rice, traditional varieties account for a significant portion of rice land in these states.

Swarna (MTU 7029), a derivative of Mahsuri, is the most popular improved rice variety that is grown in a large number of states. In 1999, it was grown on about 12% of India's rice land. The other popular varieties are Vijeta (MTU 1001), Samba Mahsuri (BPT 5204), Mahsuri, Lalat, IR64, and IR36.

Data on fertilizer sales show a large regional variation in the use of nutrients. NPK use varies from less than 50 kg/ha in Assam, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh (mostly rainfed areas) to more than 140 kg/ha in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana (irrigated land). A report on the cost of cultivation of principal crops in 2000 notes a heavy use of pesticides in rice cultivation in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh but very little in other states. Mechanization of agricultural operations is prevalent in Punjab and Haryana and is gaining ground in Andhra Pradesh, western Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, but is almost absent in other states.

External trade
In the 1960s, India imported 0.7 to 1.0 million t of rice annually to meet the deficit in domestic demand. India became self-sufficient in rice in 1977 with imports of small amounts in years of crop failures. The latest large imports were 0.5 million t in 1984, 0.7 million t in 1988, and 0.47 million t in 1989. Since then, imports of rice have been limited to below 100,000 t.

India exports a small amount of high-quality basmati (aromatic) rice on a regular basis. Exports of rice jumped from 0.9 million t in 1994 to 4.9 million t in 1995 in response to the large increase in demand in the world market. However, India could not sustain exports at that level because of the low quality of indica rice, of which a substantial surplus is produced in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. Although there is a large unmet demand for staple food grains in the poverty-stricken states of eastern India because of a lack of purchasing capacity of low-income households, the disposal of the surplus rice procured by the government has become a major concern for India.

Rice environments
Rice environments in India are extremely diverse. India has the largest area under rice in the world. Of the 45 million ha of harvested rice area, about 28% are rainfed lowland, 46% irrigated, 12% rainfed upland, and 14% flood-prone. In the some traditional wheat-growing states, such as Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, rice production has increased substantailly since the late 1960s with the introduction of modern high-yielding rice varieties that induced farmers to undertake commercial cultivation of rice. In Punjab, for example, rice production increased from 0.9 to 13.1 million t, and in Uttar Paradesh from 4.4 to 19.4 million t from 1968 to 1999. This rapid expansion was possible because of the favorable irrigation infrastructure.

Production constraints
Since the major portion (55%) of the area under rice in India is rainfed, production is strongly tied to the distribution of rainfall. In some states, erratic rainfall leads to drought during the vegetative period, but later the crop maybe damaged by submergence cause by high rainfall. In the eastern states, damage from flash flood is quite high.

Other constraints relate to the land and soil. Soil acidity is a problem in southern and eastern India, whereas, in northen India, soil salinity and alkalanity are the problem. Low soil fertility and P and Zn deficiency are widespread. Nearly all of the rainfed area suffers from a lack of infrastructure. Moreover, most farmers cannot afford the inputs necessary for full exploitation of the yield potential of modern varieties. Crop residues are used as livestock feed and for thatching of roofs of houses; animal dung is used for fuel, and is not available to compensate for the loss of nutrients in the cultivation of modern varieties.

Stem borers, brown planthopper, gundhi bug, leaffolders, green leafhopper, and gall midge are major insects pests causing large yield losses. Bacterial blight, blast, sheath blight, and brown spot are important diseases. With increases in wage rates, weeds are becoming a major factor constraining productivity and profitability in rice farming.

Production opportunities

Much of India's agricutural growth, particularly in major cereals, can be traced to an agricultural strategy adopted in the late 1960s. The strategy included

• provision of a package of inputs consisting of short-duration, high-yielding modern varieties, fertilizers, and improved agricultural practices in areas of assured water supply;
• supply of credit from public institutions to finance working capital needs of farmers; and
• declaration of a minimum price before planting at which surplus grains are to be procured by the government.

To extend the production package to less favored areas in order to achieve more balanced regional growth, agroclimatic zonal planning is applied. India has been divided into 21 agroclimatic regions based on homogeneity in rainfall, temperature, soil, topography, and water resource. Rice research priorities have shifted from the irrigated ecosystem in the northwest and southern region to the predominantly rainfed ecosystem in eastern and northeastern India. Strategic research to increase the productivity of rice is being done in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International Rice Research Institute in six states in eastern India that account for two-thirds of the total rice area. The Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains is studying the problem of sustainability of high yields in rice and wheat by examining system-level issues.

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