Agroecological Zones of India

Agroecological zones are the most reasonable units of planning in India because about 60 percent of the population in India is still dependent on agricultural sector for employment. Any gains in agricultural sector will trickle down to large populace. In this article, we will understand the concept of agroecological zones in context of India.

Definition of Agroecological Zone

An agroecological region or zone is an area of land have homogeneous characteristics related to land suitability, potential production and environmental impact. According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), an Agroecological Zone (AEZ) is a land resource mapping unit, defined in terms of climate, landforms and soils, and/or land cover, and having a specific range of potentials and constraints for land use.

In Simple Words

Basically, the AEZ is a fundamental geographic area which have similar crop combination, crop rotation, temperature, availability of rainfall, irrigation, type of soil, yield, topography and environmental outcomes. These parameters have been explained below in detail.

Crop rotation and Crop Combination

It includes the number and types of crops combinations grown in a particular sequence over an area within a year and over many years. For example, the the farmers in an AEZ can grow wheat, rice and vegetables which is termed as crop combination. Further, the sequence of crops means that which of these crops is grown earlier or later within a year. It also means if farmer grows the different crops on the same piece of land over many years.

Temperature and availability of water

Temperature and water availability through rainfall and irrigation determine the control of farmers on supply of water to the fields. These factors help scientists determine the type of crops which the farmers can grown in an area. It helps planners to decide if farmers should practice dry farming or wet farming.

Soil

It is an important factor for cultivation. An area may have good rainfall and high temperature but it will be difficult to cultivate crops if the soil is not fertile. Some types of soils are really good for certain crops e.g. Black Soil is very good for cotton and sugarcane, the loamy soil is good for wheat etc.

Yield

If all the above factors are suitable, the yield of crop is high and vice-versa. High yield point towards agriculturally developed regions. Yield is also dependent on cropping intensity as explained in Von Thunen Model.

Relief

The variation in altitude from sea level is called relief. For example, mountainous region, plain region, plateau region, coastal plains etc. are different types of relief feature.

Environmental Outcomes

Agricultural practices have certain environmental outcomes which may be positive, negative or neutral. Planner have to determine the net result of cultivation on the environment. This helps the policy makers to understand if present agricultural system is sustainable or not.

In short, agroecological zones/ regions represent the suitability of a cropping system to the given topography and environment in an area. It must be noted that agroecological zones are similar but not the same as agro-climatic zones. Agro-climatic zones one considers agricultural systems in relation to climate but ignores relief of an area.