Crop yield
Also called: Yield per hectare · Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Organisation of Data"; Class 11, Ch 6 "Correlation"
Meaning
Crop yield is how much of a crop is produced on each unit of land. It is usually measured in kilograms or tonnes per hectare.
Crop yield = Total output of the crop ÷ Area under the crop
It is the basic measure of land productivity in agriculture. India's net sown area is close to its limit at about 140 million ha. So future growth has to come mainly from higher yields and from cropping the same land more often.
Example
A farmer harvests 40 tonnes of wheat from 10 hectares, so the yield is 40 ÷ 10 = 4 tonnes per hectare. HYV seeds raised wheat yields sharply after the mid-1960s. They did this only with correct doses of fertiliser and pesticide and with assured irrigation.
Don't confuse with
- Production (total output): production can rise simply because more land is sown. Yield rises only when each hectare produces more.
- Yield gap: this is the difference between the yield that is possible and the yield farmers actually get. It is not the yield itself.
Related concepts
- Green Revolution
- High-yielding variety seeds
- Research and extension
- Farm mechanisation
- Seed replacement rate
- Kharif crops
- Rabi crops
- Zaid crops
- Multiple cropping
- Net sown area