Agro-climatic zones of India

Also called: Agroclimatic zones, Agro-climatic planning · Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "The Story of Indian Farming"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

Agro-climatic zones of India are the 15 agro-climatic regions that the Planning Commission set up in 1988-89 under the Agro-Climatic Regional Planning Project [2]. Each region is a large area with a similar mix of terrain (physiography), soils, climate (mainly rainfall and temperature) and water resources, so farmers there can grow a similar set of crops in a similar season.

• These zones let planners decide what to grow, when to grow it and how, region by region.
• Their main aim is regionally balanced development. Each region's farm plan should match its own natural resources so that no region falls far behind.

Explanation

How the idea works: matching farming to the land

• Four physical factors decide what grows where:
• Climate: temperature, rainfall and when the rain comes
• Soil: its type, depth, fertility and how well it holds water
• Water: rain, rivers, canals and groundwater

• Terrain: height above sea level, slope, and plains versus hills

• Cause → process → result:

• Cause: India's land and climate change a lot from place to place, so one farm plan for the whole country does not work.
• Process: the Planning Commission grouped areas that share similar terrain, soil, climate and water into 15 regions.

• Result: each region gets its own plan for crops, water use and inputs (seeds, fertiliser and other things farmers buy).

• Timeline:

• NCERT Class 12 dates the start of agro-climatic planning to 1988.
• The 15 regions were fixed in 1988-89 [2].

The 15 regions in groups (an easy way to remember them)

• 2 Himalayan regions:
• Western Himalayan: Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand

• Eastern Himalayan: Sikkim, Darjeeling hills, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and the North-Eastern hill states

• 4 Gangetic plain regions, running east to west along the Ganga:

• Lower (West Bengal) → Middle (Bihar, eastern UP) → Upper (western and central UP) → Trans-Gangetic (Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Ganganagar)

• 4 plateau-and-hills regions: Eastern, Central, Western, Southern

• 3 coastal or western regions: East Coast Plains and Hills, West Coast Plains and Ghats, Gujarat Plains and Hills
• 1 dry region: Western Dry Region (Thar)
• 1 island region: Islands (Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep)

The Gangetic plain gradient: a key pattern

• Rainfall falls as you move west along the plains.
• The Lower Gangetic Plains (West Bengal) are the wettest.

• The Trans-Gangetic Plains (Punjab, Haryana) are the driest of the four.

• Effect on farming:

• The western regions depend more on canals and tubewells.
• The Trans-Gangetic and Upper Gangetic Plains became the core of the Green Revolution (from the mid-1960s). Canals, tubewells and high-yielding wheat and rice spread there first.

Where these zones sit among other classifications

• NCERT Class 7 uses a simpler set of seven climate types: alpine, temperate, subtropical, arid, tropical wet, semi-arid and tropical.
• Agro-climatic regions (15): broad and national. They are used for regional development planning.
• Agro-ecological regions (20, with 60 sub-regions): made by ICAR–NBSS&LUP. They use physiography, soils, bioclimate and length of growing period (LGP) [3]. This is a finer, more scientific division.
• NARP zones (127): a finer layer below the state level, made by ICAR under the National Agricultural Research Project. Each zone has a research station that tests crops and farm methods for local conditions.

Where it occurs

The scheme covers all of India. The Planning Commission ran it under the Agro-Climatic Regional Planning Project from 1988-89 [2].

No.	Region	Main area covered
1	Western Himalayan	Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand
2	Eastern Himalayan	Sikkim, Darjeeling hills (West Bengal), Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, North-Eastern hill states
3	Lower Gangetic Plains	West Bengal plains (the Ganga delta)
4	Middle Gangetic Plains	Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh
5	Upper Gangetic Plains	Western and central Uttar Pradesh
6	Trans-Gangetic Plains	Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Ganganagar (north Rajasthan)
7	Eastern Plateau and Hills	Jharkhand (Chhotanagpur), Chhattisgarh, interior Odisha
8	Central Plateau and Hills	Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand, eastern Rajasthan
9	Western Plateau and Hills	Deccan Maharashtra (black-soil plateau)
10	Southern Plateau and Hills	Interior Karnataka, Telangana, Rayalaseema (Andhra Pradesh), interior Tamil Nadu
11	East Coast Plains and Hills	Coastal Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry
12	West Coast Plains and Ghats	Kerala, Goa, coastal Karnataka, Konkan (Maharashtra)
13	Gujarat Plains and Hills	Gujarat, including Kathiawar and Kachchh
14	Western Dry Region	Western Rajasthan (Thar Desert)
15	Islands	Andaman & Nicobar (Bay of Bengal), Lakshadweep (Arabian Sea)

Don't confuse with

• Agro-ecological regions: these are 20 regions (60 sub-regions) made by ICAR–NBSS&LUP. They use length of growing period (LGP) as a criterion [3]. LGP means the number of days in a year when the soil has enough moisture and the temperature is right for crops. Agro-climatic regions number 15, were made by the Planning Commission and do not use LGP.
• NARP agro-climatic zones: there are 127 of them. They split each state into local zones for farm research. The Planning Commission's 15 regions are national and broad.
• Western Dry Region vs Western Plateau and Hills: the Western Dry Region is western Rajasthan (Thar). The Western Plateau and Hills is Deccan Maharashtra.
• NCERT's seven climate types: these group areas by climate only, such as alpine or arid. Agro-climatic regions also use soil, terrain and water.

Prelims Hooks

• 15 agro-climatic regions → Planning Commission, 1988-89 [2]. 20 agro-ecological regions and 60 sub-regions → ICAR–NBSS&LUP. 127 zones → NARP. Exam questions often swap these numbers and bodies.
• Gangetic plain regions from east to west: Lower → Middle → Upper → Trans-Gangetic.
• Trans-Gangetic Plains = Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Ganganagar. It is not Bihar, which falls in the Middle Gangetic Plains.
• The Islands region covers both Andaman & Nicobar (Bay of Bengal) and Lakshadweep (Arabian Sea).
• Basis of agro-climatic regions: terrain (physiography), soils, climate and water resources. LGP is a criterion of the agro-ecological regions, not of the agro-climatic regions [3].
• Chhotanagpur (Jharkhand) → Eastern Plateau and Hills. Bundelkhand → Central Plateau and Hills. Rayalaseema → Southern Plateau and Hills. Kachchh → Gujarat Plains and Hills.

Mains Points

• Fitting crops to the land (GS-I / GS-III):
• Zoning lets planners match crops, water use and inputs to each region's conditions.
• It helps correct mismatches, such as growing water-hungry rice and sugarcane in semi-arid Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra.

• In rainfed plateau regions, it guides crop diversification (growing a wider mix of crops) and watershed plans (managing rain and soil within one drainage area).

• Regional imbalance and the Green Revolution:

• Western Gangetic regions get less rain, so they depend on canals and tubewells.
• The Green Revolution grew first in the Trans-Gangetic and Upper Gangetic Plains. Other regions fell behind, and rabi farming in this belt now leans heavily on groundwater, which is a key reason for groundwater depletion.

• Agro-climatic planning was meant to reduce this gap through regionally balanced development [2].

• Why region-wise planning is still needed:

• Only about 55% of the net sown area is irrigated. The rest is rainfed, which means it depends only on rain [4].
• About 46.1% of the workforce depends on farming, but farming gives only about 16% of GDP [5].
• Plans built for each zone, such as contingency crop plans, crop choice and irrigation, lower the risk from a weak monsoon in each region.

Related concepts

• Agro-ecological regions

Read more

• The physical frame: agro-climatic zones, agro-ecological regions and the monsoon