WHEAT SCENARIO IN INDIA

Wheat cultivation and production in India

According to the archeological evidences, some species of wheat grew as a wild grass in the Middle East areas of Syria, Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. With the shortages of food, wheat was domesticated and cultivated 11000 thousand years ago. In fact, it was one the first crops cultivated ever. This was only due to the cultivation of this crop that people came to know how to produce their own food and in turn started to settle than wander around.

In around 6700 BC, Swiss people came to know the use of wheat in flat cakes. Egyptians were the first one to develop the concept of yeast bread and even the workers who were indulged in the construction of pyramids were paid in bread! Wheat now started gaining popularity and the concept of wheat farming spread and reached Ireland, Ethiopia, Spain and India. In 150 BC bakeries were largely set up to produce bread in Rome.

The British took wheat to the new world as the climate and soil of England was not suitable for the wheat production. With time, wheat became so significant as a staple food crop, that now; the demand of wheat is directly proportional to the population level.

Wheat was one of the first crops that were cultivated in the world thanks to its adaptability to wider range of climatic conditions and soils making it a very easy to produce crop in that time when man didn’t even know the basics of living. Wheat requires a cooler weather and a good level of moisture in the early plantation period and once the grain is formed, it needs a warmer weather to dry up. That is why the best-suited climate needed for the wheat crop to prosper is the temperate climate.

In USA, the wheat seeds are sown in the months of September and October. After February, when the snow in those areas starts to melt, the wheat crop starts to shoot up and during summers it is left to develop and finally it is harvested in the months of June, July and September. In India, wheat is cultivated as a Rabi crop and it is planted in the month of October. It is harvested in the months April and May

The following areas in India are the major wheat producing areas in the country and contribute to around 92% of the total production in the country

• Uttar Pradesh
• Haryana
• Punjab
• Rajasthan
• Madhya Pradesh
• Gujarat
• Bihar

India produces around 75 million tons of wheat every year and stands at the third position in the list of the major wheat producers in the world. India also stands at the top in the world in terms of area covered in production of wheat. Uttar Pradesh is the leading producer state in India followed by Punjab and Haryana. Wheat occupies a major share of 35% production in the total production of crops cultivated and 65% of total cropped area in the country. This share in production and area covered of the crop has increased since independence and is also constantly rising. The yield of wheat in kilograms per hectare has also risen significantly from 522 kg/ha in 1950/51 to 1620kg/ha in 1998/99