Which is the second most important cereal crop in India?

✅ Concept: Crop
When plants of the same kind are cultivated in one place on a large scale, it is called a crop.
Major crops grown in India include rice, wheat, millet, pulses, tea, coffee, sugarcane, oilseeds, cotton, and jute, etc.

✅ Explanation: Wheat
Wheat is the second most important cereal crop in India.
It is the main food crop in the north and north-western parts of the country.
This rabi crop requires a cool growing season and bright sunshine at the time of ripening.
It requires 50 to 75 cm of annual rainfall evenly distributed over the growing season.
There are two important wheat-growing zones in the country:
→ The Ganga-Satluj plains in the northwest
→ The black soil region of the Deccan

Thus, wheat is the second most important cereal crop in India.

🔴 Additional Information: Rice
→ Rice is the staple food crop for a majority of the people in India.
→ India is the second-largest producer of rice in the world after China.
→ It is a kharif crop which requires high temperature (above 25°C) and high humidity with annual rainfall above 100 cm.
→ In areas with less rainfall, it grows with the help of irrigation.
→ Rice is grown in the plains of north and north-eastern India, coastal areas, and deltaic regions.

🔴 Additional Information: Barley
→ Barley is frequently farmed in states like UP, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, HP, and J&K.
→ As a rainfed crop, barley does well in arid, saline, or alkaline soils as well as in areas with limited water resources.

🔴 Additional Information: Pulses
→ India is the largest producer as well as the consumer of pulses in the world.
→ Pulses are a major source of protein in a vegetarian diet.
→ Major pulse-producing states in India include Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.