1.0           INTRODUCTION

 

 

a) General Information
b) Agro and Sub Agro-climatic Zones
c) Cropping Pattern
d) Land Holding Pattern
e) Scope of Farm Mechanization

 

  

(a)   General Information:

 

Haryana in Northern India is located between 27° 37' to 30° 35' latitude and between 74° 28' to 77° 36' longitude. It is surrounded by Uttar Pradesh (UP) on the east, Punjab on the west, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh & Shivalik Hills on the north and Delhi, Rajasthan and Aravali Hills on the south. The altitude of Haryana varies between 700 ft to 900 ft above the sea level. An area of 1,553 sq km is covered by forests. The state has a total of 81 cities & towns and 6,759 villages. For administrative purpose, the state has been divided into four divisions (Ambala, Rohtak, Gurgaon and Hissar) and 20 districts. The population of Haryana in 2001 was 2,11,44,564 comprising 1,13,63,953 males and 97,80,611 females. It formed 2.05% of India’s population. Population density in the State was 477/km².

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(b) Agro and Sub Agro-Climatic Zones:

 
Haryana falls in the Agro Climatic Zone-VI, which is called “Trans-Gangetic Plains Region” The four main geographical features of the state are: Shivalik Hills, Ghaggar Yamuna Plain, Semi-desert sandy plain and Aravali hills. Rivers like Saraswati, Ghaggar, Tangri and Markanda originate from the Shivalik Hills. Ghaggar Yamuna Plain is made up of sand, clay, silt and hard calcareous balls like gravel known locally as “kankar”. This plain forms the largest part of the state. The other two regions are dry hilly areas and share its borders with Rajasthan.  Most of the land of Haryana is flat, covered with loamy soil which is very suitable for agriculture. Haryana falls in the Seismic Zones II, III & IV creating low to moderate damage risk from Earthquakes. But the state comes under the “Cyclonic Zone” creating very high damage risk.

(c) Climate:

The State has three distinct seasons, viz. winter (November–March), summer (April–June) and Rainy season (July–October). The rainfall occurs during the months of July–September with occasional showers during December–January. The range of rainfall in this region varied between 160-751 mm.  The summers are generally quite hot and winters are fairly cool.

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(d) Land Holdings:

The total geographical area of Haryana is 4.421 million hectare and the area under forest is 45000 hectare. The cultivable area is 3.809 million hectare (86.2%of total geographical area) and the net area sown is 3.566 million hectare (93.6% of cultivable area).  The gross cropped area is 6.504 million hectare and the area sown more than once is 2.938 million hectare with the cropping intensity of 182.39%. The net irrigated area is 2.936 million hectare (By canals- 45.3%, By Tube wells- 54.2% and by others – 0.5%). The gross irrigated area is 5.446 million hectare and the percentage of net irrigated sown area is 82.3%.   The total number of land holdings is 15.28 lakh out of which 7.34 lakh (46.1%) are marginal farmers; average land holding is above 2 hectare

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(e) Cropping Pattern:

 

 

Haryana is often called the “Food Mine” of the country. About 80% of the population of the state is agriculture dependent, directly or indirectly. Haryana is self sufficient in producing food grains and is also a major contributor of food grains in meeting the needs of other states of the country. The world famous Basmati Rice is produced here in abundance. The major cereals produced in the state include wheat, rice, maize and bajra. The crop production of Haryana can be broadly divided into Rabi and Kharif. The main kharif crops in the state include sugarcane, groundnut, maize and paddy etc. The minor kharif crops are chillies, bajra, jawar, pulses and vegetables. The North Western part of the state is suitable for the cultivation of rice, wheat, vegetable and temperate fruits and the south-western part is suitable for high quality agricultural produce, tropical fruits, exotic vegetables and herbal and medicinal plants.  

 

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(f) Scope of Farm Mechanization:

 

The farm power availability in the State during the year 2001 was 2.25 kW/ha. However, a paradigm shift in agricultural mechanization is required to realize the goal of eco-friendly sustainable agriculture with reduced cost of production and high quality of produce. This is necessary to make the farmers globally competitive and to check further damage to natural resources of soil, water and ecology. Utmost emphasis is being laid in this state to expeditiously diversify agriculture by introducing new crops and cropping systems by shifting the area from the Paddy-Wheat cropping system which is the predominant cropping system prevalent in this State. Hence there are ample opportunities pertaining to agricultural mechanization. These include: introduction of new state-of-art farm tools and machines for new crops and ventures especially for horticulture, floriculture, rain-fed and organic farming.  Equipment such as, sugarcane harvesting, cotton picking and potato harvesting need to be introduced in this state. Introduction of forage and fodder sowing and harvesting machinery and machinery for harvesting, collecting and management of crop residues of paddy and other crops is also necessary.  Water harvesting, conserving machinery such as Laser guided land leveler, ridge and bed planter, tractor operated pond excavation machinery, drip and sprinkler irrigation systems also needs to be promoted.

 

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