Agriculture.

India — A Country Grown by the Monsoon

Look at a map of India and you see mountains, rivers, plains, plateaus and coasts.

But beneath this geographical map lies another map — the map of rain.

And that map has shaped Indian agriculture for thousands of years.

The great Indian rainmaker

Every year, roughly from June onwards, the southwest monsoon sweeps across India.

It brings enormous quantities of water from the oceans to the land. Some regions receive very heavy rain; others receive much less. The Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the great river plains and the Deccan plateau all influence where that water goes.

The result is a remarkable agricultural diversity.

Where there is abundant water, rice thrives.

Where there is less water, millets and pulses flourish.

Where winter is cool, wheat becomes important.

Where the climate is warm, cotton and sugarcane grow.

In the hills, tea and coffee find their homes.

India's crops are, in many ways, a story written by its climate.

One country, many harvests

The Gangetic and northern plains became great wheat and rice-growing regions, particularly with the expansion of irrigation and the Green Revolution.

The eastern plains and deltas, blessed with abundant rainfall and rivers, became major rice-growing areas.

The Deccan plateau, with its generally drier climate, became important for jowar, bajra, ragi, pulses, oilseeds and cotton.

The black soils of central and western India became particularly famous for cotton and soybean.

The fertile sugarcane belts of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka support one of India's great agricultural industries.

The Western Ghats and southern hills, with their rainfall and elevation, provide ideal conditions for coffee, tea and spices.

And along the coasts and in the south, rice, coconut, banana and a remarkable variety of horticultural crops flourish.

From food shortage to food abundance

At Independence, India struggled with food shortages.

Much has changed since then.

Better seeds, irrigation, fertilizers, farm machinery, agricultural research and multiple cropping have transformed Indian agriculture. The Green Revolution dramatically increased wheat and rice production.

India today produces enormous quantities of rice, wheat, pulses, sugarcane, cotton, fruits, vegetables, spices, tea and coffee.

Yet the fundamental partner remains the same:

the monsoon.

The lesson

India's agriculture teaches us something larger than farming.

Human beings can develop technology, build dams, dig canals and create better seeds.

But we still depend upon nature.

The farmer watches the clouds.

The scientist watches the climate.

The river carries the water.

The soil receives the seed.

And the monsoon begins the cycle again.

A country grown by rain

India is not simply a country where agriculture happens.

India itself has been shaped by agriculture — and agriculture has been shaped by the monsoon.

From the rice fields of the east to the wheat fields of the north, from the cotton lands of the Deccan to the tea gardens of the hills, millions of different fields are part of one enormous annual rhythm.

The monsoon arrives.

The earth awakens.

The farmer sows.

And India grows.