Understanding The Importance of Agriculture in Uttar Pradesh

In the north and west, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi; in the south-west and south, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh; and in the east, Jharkhand and Bihar. With 199.8 million inhabitants (Census 2011), it is India’s fourth biggest and most populous state, encompassing 7.33 per cent of the country’s total territory and accounting for 16.5 per cent of the country’s total population.

Importance Of Agriculture In Uttar Pradesh

1. There are 59% of the population of Uttar Pradesh is employed in the agriculture sector.
2. In the financial year 2016-17, the contribution of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in the economy of Uttar Pradesh was 24%, 27% and 49% respectively.
3. Uttar Pradesh is the country’s top producer of milk. The state accounts for around 16.83 per cent of the country’s total milk output. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, the state produced around 27.77 million tonnes of milk.

4. In Uttar Pradesh, the average agricultural holding size is 0.76 hectares, which is lower than the national average of 1.15 hectares.
5. In the fiscal year 2017-18, the state produced the most veggies in India (28,226 thousand tonnes).
6. Foodgrain production in the state was 49,144.6 thousand tonnes in the fiscal year 2016-17. In the 2016-17 fiscal year, it contributed roughly 17.83 per cent of the country’s total grain output.
7. The main food grains that will be produced in the state include rice, wheat, maize, millet, gram, peas and lentils. In the year 2017-18, pulses production in the state was 1,985 thousand tonnes.
8. Uttar Pradesh is first in the production of wheat, barley, sugarcane, potato, and lentils.
9. The following three districts in the state are major mango producers: Lucknow, Saharanpur, and Bulandshahr.

In Uttar Pradesh, the two largest producers of Amla are Pratapgarh and Allahabad.

11. The state’s largest guava growers are Shahjahanpur and Farrukhabad.
12. Barabanki is Uttar Pradesh’s major opium producer.

Rice

The state has 5.6 million under rice cultivation, which covers irrigated and rainfed areas. The area has been fluctuating between 5.2 and 6.1 million ha during the last seven years. The current state average productivity is about 2 tonnes/ha and the major constraints in production are low coverage by hybrids and varieties, soil salinity/alkalinity and micro and secondary nutrient deficiency, imbalanced fertilizer use, decreasing organic carbon content in soils

 Pant Sankar Dhan 1, Pant Sankar Dhan 3, Narendra Sankar Dhan 2 and 6444 hybrids are being grown.

Pusa Basmati 1, Pusa Sugandh 4, Pusa Sugandh 5, and hybrid Pusa RH 10 rice types are being grown.

Improved Pusa Basmati 1 cultivars for bacterial blight tolerance

Salinity-tolerant cultivars including CSR 30, CSR 27, and hybrid Narendra Usher Sankar Dhan 3 are being grown.

Rice Jalpriya, Jal Lahari, and Jal Nidhi are grown in flood-prone locations.

Wheat

Uttar Pradesh is the largest state, contributing the most to national output (35.03 per cent) from a huge area (35.12 per cent), but at a lower yield of 2.7 tonnes per hectare. Wheat is grown in three agroclimatic zones: western Uttar Pradesh (3.29 million hectares), eastern Uttar Pradesh (5.24 million ha), and central Uttar Pradesh (central Uttar Pradesh) (0.68 million ha). 

Sugarcane

Sugarcane is farmed on 21.5 million hectares, yielding 1,255 million tonnes of sugarcane. About 40% of cane production is diverted to the gur and Khansari industries, while the remaining 48 per cent is crushed for sugar manufacture, totalling 57.8 lakh tonnes. Cane productivity is around 65 tonnes per hectare. 

Chickpea

Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a progressive decline in the area and production of chickpea during the past three decades. While the area has gone down from 17.26 lakh ha in 1975-76 to 7.40 lakh ha in 2005-06, the production has decreased from 12.50 lakh tonnes to 6.61 lakh tonnes. However, the productivity has increased from 724 to 893 kg/ha with a wide fluctuation between 446 and 1,035 kg/ha. 

Pigeonpea

Pigeonpea occupies 3.82 lakh ha with an annual production of 3.62 lakh tonnes and average productivity of 961 kg/ha. During the last three decades (1976–2006), pigeon pea had witnessed a gradual decline in the area from 5.28 lakh ha to 3.82 lakh ha, production from 7.75 lakh tonnes to 3.67 lakh tonnes and yield from 1,467 to 961 kg/ha. Mostly, long-duration varieties are grown under intercrops in the eastern as well as the southwest region.

Conclusion:

Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi are in the north and west; Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh are in the south-west and south; while Jharkhand and Bihar are in the east. It is India’s fourth-largest and most populous state, with 199.8 million residents (Census 2011), covering 7.33 per cent of the country’s total area and 16.5 per cent of the country’s total population.

Terai, western plains (WP), mid-western plains (MWP), western semi-dry plains (SWDP), mid-western south plains (MWSP), south-western semi-dry plains (SWSDP), Bundelkhand (BUND), northeastern plains (NEP), and Vindhyachal Pradesh are the nine agro-climate zones of Uttar Pradesh (VIND).