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1 Waters
ils of the
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he agro-
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0.14
2.11
0.39
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0.08
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0.35
2.20
0.54
1.72
1.22
4.39
0.63
0.30
0.19
Tamil Nadu 1.69 0.02
Kerala 0.24 0.00
Total 50.44 14.14
5.1.1 NORTH INDIA (Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and
Uttaranchal) These are agriculturally intensive states in
northern India, with well developed irrigation infrastructure and
adoption of improved practices. The crop intensity in these
States is very high with wheat and mustard crops during the
rabi season, leaving very insignificant proportion of post kharif
rice fallows. This was also evident from the satellite data of rabi
season covering these states.
5.1.2 EASTERN INDIA (Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, West
Bengal and Orissa) Adequate water availability during the
kharif season facilitates for the cultivation of rice crop in these
eastern states. Among these five eastern States, Bihar and
Jharkhand had the highest coverage of both kharif rice and the
post kharif rice fallows followed by West Bengal, Orissa and
Assam.
The post kharif rice fallows are mostly distributed in Jharkhand
State. All the five Eastern states o India together contributed
5.68 M ha of the post kharif rice fallow lands out of 16.70 M ha
of the kharif rice cropped area indicating a high potential for
crop diversification and improving agricultural production in
these States.
5.1.3 WESTERN INDIA : (Gujarat and Rajasthan) In the
Western states of India viz., Gujarat and Rajasthan the extent
of rice cultivation is mainly confined to the irrigation sources in
these states.
The post kharif rice fallows are mostly distributed in
Panchmahal, Kheda and Vadodara districts. Area under kharif
rice as well as under post kharif rice fallow lands is less in these
states, together occupying 0.11 M ha under rice fallow lands.
5.1.4 CENTRAL INDIA (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and Maharashtra) The kharif rice crop is mainly concentrated
in Chhattisgarh state and the land is left fallow during the
subsequent rabi season. In the Western part of the Madhya
Pradesh state, soybean-wheat system is pre-dominant.
Analysis of the satellite data revealed that the post kharif rice
fallows are mostly distributed in the Chattisgarh state. Thus,
this state along with the five Eastern States possesses the
highest potential in India for the cultivation of pulse crops in
the following rabi season after kharif rice.
In Maharashtra state, rice crop is cultivated in areas with
irrigation facilities only and post kharif rice fallows occupied
0.63 M ha.
5.1.5 SOUTH INDIA (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu and Kerala) In the Southern States of India viz., Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala States, rice-rice
system is dominant where canal irrigation facilities are
abundant.
In Andhra Pradesh, the post kharif rice fallows are distributed
in the uplands of the north coastal region where rice is grown
mostly as a rainfed crop. In Tamil Nadu, rice is cultivated in
three major rice seasons spread over the entire year. The
periodic succession of rice cultivation followed in this state
resulted in limited extent of fallow lands.
In the Karnataka, the extent of kharif rice cultivation is mostly
spread in the Bhadra, Krishnaraj Sagar, Malaprabha,
Ghataprabha command areas and post kharif rice fallow lands
of 0.18 M ha are distributed in the command areas.
The satellite data in Kerala State had shown insignificant post
kharif rice fallows because of the predominance of rice- rice
cropping system. High cropping intensity coupled with limited
IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002
247
arable lands available for cultivation of seasonal field crops had
not shown any significant coverage of post kharif rice fallows.
5.2 PAKISTAN
Pakistan has wide range of climates ranging from humid to arid
and consists of four provinces namely Punjab, Sindh, North
West Frontier and Balochistan. Punjab province is
agriculturally the most intensive region, followed by the Sindh,
North West Frontier province and Balochistan. In Pakistan rice
is grown under irrigated conditions. Rice-wheat, cotton-wheat
based cropping systems are very popular in Punjab province.
Rice, cotton and sugarcane are important kharif crops of this
country.
Wheat is the most preferred rabi cereal food grain crop and the
extent of wheat acreage exceeded the combined acreage of the
major kharif crops of these provinces leaving no scope for the
kharif rice lands to be kept fallow in the rabi season and as such
the post kharif rice fallows are highly insignificant (Govt. of
Pakistan, 1999). This was also observed in the satellite data of
February, 2000 and the analysis showed that wheat crop
occupied 7.65 M ha during the rabi 2000.
Analysis of the satellite revealed that Pakistan has 2.45 M ha of
kharif rice and only 0.14 M ha of rabi fallow lands, most of
which was distributed in the Sindh Province. A major
proportion of the post kharif fallows are distributed in the
Thatta district since post kharif rice lands are fallow as the
paddy fields do not become dry on time for rabi sowings
(Haqqani, 2000) and same was observed in the satellite data.
53 BANGLADESH
Bangladesh cultivates a variety of crops due to the wide range
of climates and the growing seasons. Of the four major
territorial divisions of Bangladesh, Rajashabi is the most
agriculturally intensive one, followed by Dhaka, Chittagong
and Khulna. Rice crop is cultivated in Bangladesh in three
seasons, as aus paddy, transplanted during mid March to mid
April, aman paddy during June to September and boro paddy
during mid November to mid February, with Aman paddy as
the most important paddy season. Wheat, mustard and
chickpea are the important rabi crops of Bangladesh.
Early and late transplanted rice crops were also discriminated
due to their characteristic variations in the spectral reflectance
patterns. During the early part of January and February months
the satellite data showed some vegetation signatures in Pabna,
Chaudanga, Rajbari, Magura and Faridpur districts. However,
two districts viz., Sirajganj and Bogra had shown more of
fallow land during that period and analysis of data pertaining to
these months would have led to classifying cropped area as
seen in the march month of the latter two districts as fallows,
thereby overestimating the fallow lands. Hence, satellite data of
march acquisition was used for analysis in deriving the post
kharif rice fallows.
The satellite data had shown 6.35 M ha of area was occupied by
kharif rice and about one third of the rice cropped area in kharif
to the tune of 2.11 M ha, remains fallow in Bangladesh. Like
the Eastern States of India, this country also has a good
potential for optimal utilization of the land resources in the rabi
season, where rice-fallow system is in practice.
5.4 NEPAL
Rice is the important food crop grown in Nepal followed by
maize, finger millet and pigeon pea during the kharif season.
Wheat, chickpea and potato are the major rabi crops. The
Southern Terai districts of Nepal, adjacent to the Indian border,
