ECONOMY
"That
economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values."
- M.K. Gandhi
Rice Farming India
Agriculture
generates about one-third of the value of India's annual
GDP. Most farms are very small. In terms of area sown the leading
crop is rice, the staple foodstuff of a large section of the Indian
population. Wheat ranks next in importance to rice, and India is
also among the leading producers in the world of sugarcane, tea,
cotton, and jute.
Annual production of these commodities in the early 1990s was sugarcane, 230 million metric tons; rice, 72.6 million tons; wheat, 56.8 million tons; tea, 743,000 tons; cotton lint, 2.0 million tons; and jute, 1.4 million tons. Cashews, coffee, and spices are also important cash crops. Other crops include vegetables, melons, sorghum, millet, corn, barley, chickpeas, bananas, mangoes, rubber, and linseed. The raising of livestock, particularly horned cattle, buffalo, horses, and mules, is a central feature of the agricultural economy of India. In the early 1990s the country had about 192.7 million cattle, substantially more than any other country in the world. These animals, like the buffalo, horses, and mules, are utilized almost exclusively as beasts of burden, mainly because meat consumption, owing to religious or social scruples, is not permitted among the Hindus. As a result of such factors as inadequate pasturage and water supplies, the breeds of cattle of India are generally inferior. The buffalo (78.6 million) are largely employed in the deltaic regions. In the dry regions of Punjab and Rajasthan camels (1.5 million) are the principal beasts of burden. Sheep (44.4 million) and goats (117 million) are raised mainly for wool. "India,"
Agriculture
