Rice-wheat cropping system
Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The rice-wheat cropping system means growing paddy in the kharif (monsoon) season and wheat in the rabi (winter) season on the same field, year after year. It covers about 10 million hectares of the Indo-Gangetic plains. It spread with the Green Revolution and irrigation, and it helped make India self-reliant in food. Both crops need a lot of water and fertiliser, so the system has damaged soils and drained groundwater.
Example
In Punjab and Haryana, this system has left about 80% of Punjab's area with overexploited groundwater. The short gap between the paddy harvest and wheat sowing leads farmers to burn stubble.
Don't confuse with
- Crop rotation: in the broad sense, this means changing crops from season to season, often including legumes (pulse crops that add nitrogen to the soil) so the soil recovers. The rice-wheat system repeats two cereals, which pushes out legumes and drains the soil of nutrients.
Related concepts
- NPK ratio imbalance
- Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act 2009
- Direct seeded rice
- Zero tillage
- System of Rice Intensification
- Crop diversification
- Organic farming
- Sikkim organic state
- Natural farming
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana