Factors Of Cropping Pattern Of A Locality

Cropping pattern of different locality are depend on some factors of that locality. Factors are categorized into some broad term such as Weather, Soil, Social condition, Production inputs and price, Mechanization facilities, Government policy and Natural calamities.

Weather: humidity, day length, rainfall, temperature are main points or factors of cropping pattern.
Humidity: Some crops like tea grow well in high humidity. So humidity is a factor.
Day length: Potato grows well in short day length where wheat, onion need long day length.
Rainfall: Tea needs heavy rainfall where barley and chickpea grow in arid climate.
Temperature: In temperate countries wheat grows well where in sub tropical area rice is grows well.

Soil: Soil conditions such as soil pH, salinity, ground water table, soil topography and soil texture are also determinants of cropping pattern.
Soil pH: tea grows in acidic soil where coconut needs alkaline soil to grow well.
Salinity: Crops are not grow well in saline soil. So we need to develop saline tolerant varieties for saline area. But few crops like tomatoes and broccoli may grow in moderately saline water.
Ground water table: Shallow rooted crops do not grow well in that area where water table is low.
Soil topography: Sesame, pineapple, zinger, turmeric etc grows well in those land which are not under flood water but pulses, oil seeds grows well in those land where little flood water comes usually.
Soil texture: Sweet potato, groundnut, water melon grows well in sandy land but rice needs clay or sandy clay soil.
Soil water : rice needs more soil water than any other crops.

Social condition: Some social conditions are determinants of cropping pattern. Mainly these are problem of under developed and developing countries.
Financial condition: Poor farmer can not grow expensive crops like sugarcane, Banana etc. Because these crops need high initial cost.
Transport problem: Poor communication facility is the major determinants in a locality.
Market price: Good market price influence the farmer to grow crops.
Food habit: The crops that are not present in the food habit in a locality, are not grown at that locality.
Storage facility: Where there are no storage facility, farmers of that locality usually do not grow vegetables.
Attitude of farmer: Some times farmers do not want to adopt modern technology.

Production inputs:It is the direct regulator of cropping pattern of region. If there is no available inputs, farmer will not go for production.

Mechanization facilities: If there is no extraction facility, farmer will not cultivate oil seeds, if there is no shelling facility farmer will not go for corn cultivation.

Government policy: Good government policy, crop insurance and facility influence farmer to grow a particular crop of a certain area.
Natural calamity: Cyclone, flood etc are the factors of coastal area and drought is factor of arid region.

Tweet