Agriculture (Gujarat)

Map crop to rainfall band and soil, west to east. Dry north-west Kachchh and Banaskantha with light soils: castor, cumin, mustard, bajra plus dairy on irrigated fodder. Central black-soil belt of Saurashtra and the Bhal: groundnut and cotton — Saurashtra is the groundnut heartland. Wetter central and south Gujarat with alluvium: cotton, tobacco (Kheda-Anand), banana and sugarcane in the deep south, paddy in the Dangs belt. So the single question 'how much water does this district get?' predicts its crop, and the state's famous three — groundnut, cotton, castor — sit in exactly that order from west to centre.

• Groundnut-Saurashtra, cotton-black soil, castor-north Gujarat.

  Each of the three main cash crops has a home region and a soil reason. Groundnut suits the sandy soils of Saurashtra, cotton the black soil belt, and castor the drier north Gujarat districts, where Gujarat leads the country.

• Named produce: Kesar mango, Bhalia wheat, Gir cow.

  Gujarat has several geographical-indication style products tied to a specific place: Kesar mango from the Girnar-Talala belt in Junagadh, Bhalia wheat from the Bhal region, and the Gir breed of cattle. Place plus product is a standard question shape.

• 1Gujarat is India's leading producer of castor, and among the leading producers of cotton and groundnut.
• 2Bt cotton is grown widely across the black-soil belt of Saurashtra and central Gujarat.
• 3Cumin, isabgol and fennel are major spice crops of north Gujarat's dry districts.
• 4Tobacco is associated with the Charotar region around Anand and Kheda.
• 5Kesar mango is grown in the Girnar foothills around Talala in Junagadh district.
• 6Micro-irrigation — drip and sprinkler — is heavily promoted in Gujarat because most farming is on water-scarce land.

• Gujarat is among India's leading producers of cotton, groundnut and castor; castor in particular is a crop in which Gujarat dominates national production.
• Bt cotton adoption transformed Gujarat's cotton output from the early 2000s, and cotton is the raw-material link that ties Gujarat's agriculture to its textile industry in Ahmedabad and Surat.
• Gujarat's high agricultural growth in the 2000s is usually attributed to three things together: check-dams and mass water harvesting under the Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation scheme, the spread of micro-irrigation (drip and sprinkler), and the Jyotigram Yojana, which separated rural feeders so farms got reliable scheduled power and villages got round-the-clock supply.
• Micro-irrigation in the state is promoted through Gujarat Green Revolution Company, and the Krishi Mahotsav campaign took soil health cards and extension advice to villages each year — both are standard examples of Gujarat's agricultural extension model.
• Distinctive local crops worth pinning to place: Kheda and Anand for tobacco, the Bhal region for the hardy Bhalia wheat grown largely on residual moisture, Junagadh and Gir for Kesar mango, Valsad and Navsari for Alphonso and chikoo, and Banaskantha and Mehsana for the dairy and fennel-cumin belt.

• Gujarat leads in castor and is a top producer of cotton and groundnut, but it is not a leading rice or wheat state. Options making it a foodgrain leader are wrong.

• Gujarat Socio-Economic Review, published annually by the state government
• Gujarat State Board Social Science textbooks for secondary standards, published by GSSTB
• NCERT Class XII — India: People and Economy

• NCERT textbooks (free PDFs)
• Census of India
• Narmada / Sardar Sarovar (Gujarat Govt)