Agriculture

📖 Cropping seasons

• Kharif — sown with the onset of monsoon (June-July), harvested in autumn (e.g. rice, cotton, maize).
• Rabi — sown in winter (October-December), harvested in spring (e.g. wheat, gram, mustard).
• Zaid — a short summer season between Rabi and Kharif, for water-intensive crops like watermelon and cucumber.

💰 Minimum Support Price (MSP)

MSP is the price at which the government guarantees to purchase certain crops from farmers, protecting them from sharp market price falls. It is announced by the government based on recommendations from the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), though actual procurement is concentrated in a handful of crops (notably wheat and rice) and states.

🌾 The Green Revolution

Beginning in the mid-1960s, the Green Revolution introduced high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers, and irrigation, dramatically boosting foodgrain production — especially wheat and rice in states like Punjab and Haryana — and helping India move from food scarcity to self-sufficiency.

🏪 Agricultural marketing reforms

Traditionally, farmers sold produce through state-regulated APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) mandis. Reforms in recent years have aimed to give farmers more choice — notably e-NAM (National Agriculture Market), an online trading platform connecting mandis across states to improve price discovery and market access.