Different Types of Crops – Imaluop

Now we are going to discuss different types of crops and they are named depending upon their growing season, their major use and on other basis which we will discuss below one by one. In every country’s economy agriculture plays a great role and provides different types of food and raw material and sometimes the crops are cultivated for commercial benefits.

In rural areas major employment comes from agriculture and on the basis of purposes they can be categorised into different categories. 

Types of Crops on the Basis of Growing Season:

Kharif Crops: 

The crops which require a lot of water are generally planted in the rainy season so that they can get sufficient amounts of water naturally and for this they are planted at the beginning of monsoon and harvested at the end of monsoon for example maize, cotton and they require hot weather along with much amount of water. 

Rabi Crops: 

They generally need cold weather conditions so they are planted during cold season and harvested during the spring because they grow in cold season but their seed germinate during warm weather conditions, some common examples of Rabi crops are mustard and wheat. 

Zarid Crops: 

They do not need much cold or warm conditions and their cultivation does not take a very long time period, they attain maturity very fast so they can be cultivated easily between the winter and summer season, examples of some common zarid crops are watermelon, pumpkin, cucumber, bitter gourd.  

Types of Crops on the Basis of Their Purposes: 

Cash Crops: 

Some crops are very high economic value so they are cultivated on a large scale for earnings and profit and they are known as cash crops. Farmers are generally interested in cultivating more cash crops for their economic benefits because the cash crops have great demand in national and international markets.

Some crops with huge economic benefits are cotton, tea, coffee, cocoa and sugarcane, all of them give high profit due to their high demand in the market and farmers give more stress on cultivating those crops. 

Food Crops: 

Cash crops are beneficial for economic profit but to supply the sufficient amount of food to our growing population, the crops which are used for food need cultivation and the crops which are used as food for the population are known as food crops.  

• Rice: 

Rice is a very important food crop and their cultivation also occurs on a large scale to meet its high demand and rice needs high temperature and heavy rainfall so they are cultivated during monsoon. 

• Wheat: 

It is also a very important food crop and generally cultivated in cold season because they need low temperature for their growth and they do not need very much rainfall, they are categorised under Rabi crops. 

• Millets: 

Ragi, Jowar and Bajra are important millet crops and they are used as food due to their high nutrition value but they need a large amount of water so they are generally cultivated in those regions where rainfall occurs throughout the year. 

• Maize: 

Maize is a very famous food crop cultivated for its nutrient rich grains and they grow in summer season, their plant parts are generally used as fodder, maize categories under kharif crop. 

• Pulses: 

Pulses have great demand because their protein rich seed is generally cultivated on a large scale because they do not take a large time period to attain maturity.

Pulses are beneficial to increase the soil fertility because the root nodules of leguminous plants contain nitrogen fixing bacteria which fix the atmospheric nitrogen into the soil so if we can cultivate them in the field before the cultivation of those crop which needs high nutrition then we get higher yields so they are used in crop rotation. 

Read More: Cropping Patterns in Agriculture