AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

AGRICULTURAL SEASONS

All cultivable land in Satara district comes under the category of jirayat or dry crop land, its further classification being dependent upon the pattern of crops grown vis-a-vis the monsoons. Thus, the early monsoon crops are called kharif crops and the late monsoon crops, rabi crops. The kharif crops are brought to maturity by the showers of south-west monsoon, whereas rabi crops depend upon dew irrigation and the occasional fair weather showers between November and March.

The kharif season which commences in June-July and terminates in September-October gets its rainfall primarily from the south-west monsoon and from the occasional ante-monsoon showers in May Usually, kharif crops are sown from the first week of June to mid July and harvested in mid-September and sometimes even up to the end of November. The sowing and reaping of these crops roughly coincide with the commencement and termination of the monsoon. Rabi season commences from the middle of October and terminates in mid-February or in the first week of March. Rabi crops are taken with the help of irrigation and occasional fair weather showers due in November. Sowing of rabi crops generally takes place in November, whereas they are harvested in March. These are grown in low lying areas where water or sufficient moisture is available from within the sub-soil, as rainfall received in this season from the north-east monsoon is very scanty. Though a line of demarcation cannot be drawn between kharif and rabi crops, broadly speaking, crops grown in kharif season and known as kharif crops comprise, in a great part, cereals such as bhat (paddy) nagli or nachni (ragi), bajra maize, vari and rala, while those taken in the rabi season and known as rabi crops include wheat and pulses like val, mug (green gram) and tur among others. Of course, there are some crops like jowar which can be taken both as kharif crops or rabi crops and this mainly depends upon the system of crop rotation followed by the cultivators having regard to the type of the soil, climatic conditions yield of the crop and the expenses to be incurred, etc.

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