Question

“Without irrigation, the development of agriculture is difficult in India.” Clarify the statement by giving two reasons.

Answer 1

Hint: Agriculture is practiced in many places in India. Many people are dependent on agriculture. Different types of crops are grown in India depending upon the type of soil, weather conditions, and most importantly the availability of water.

Complete step-by-step solution:
Agriculture is the backbone of India. India ranks first with the highest net cropped area in the world followed by the US and China. Worth of $38 billion agricultural products were exported by India in 2013, making it the sixth-largest net exporter and the seventh-largest agricultural exporter worldwide. These agricultural products are exported to more than 120 countries. Every place in India may not receive an adequate amount of rainfall. The north-eastern parts of India receive heavy rainfall due to the windward side of the Western Ghats whereas Rajasthan, Haryana, and few parts of Punjab receive scanty rainfall. Rainfall is highly irregular and uncertain in India. Sometimes, it may rain heavily and at other times, there can be droughts due to the scarcity of rains. The irrigation infrastructure of India includes a network of major and minor canals from rivers, tanks, groundwater well-based systems, and other rain harvesting projects for the purpose of agriculture. The groundwater system is the largest out of all these. Out of 160 million hectares of cultivated land in India, about 39 million hectares could be irrigated using groundwater wells and an additional 22 million hectares by using irrigation canals. This helps people to not only depend upon the rains but also use irrigation to cultivate the land. So, the development of agriculture is difficult in India without irrigation.

Note: Major projects like dams are also built for the purpose of irrigation. Free electricity and minimum support price for water-intensive crops are provided by the government that encourages the farmers.