The Green Revolution

Though, over a period of time the agricultural land has reduced considerably, but due to modernization and the Green Revolution the food production has increased manifold. The gross land area under irrigation now is about 374,000 hectares. The major boom came only after the Green Revolution when new techniques of agriculture and large scale commercialization took place. This has made Saharanpur a major contributor to the national food grain stock.

The climatic conditions are also suitable for agriculture. The average temperature is about 30 degrees centigrade in the summers, though it gets really chilly in the winters. The humidity level ranges from 72 to 85 % in the monsoon and from 29 to 50 % in the summers. The average annual rainfall is about 800 mm and coupled with the abundance of sweet water from the two rivers, the land has natural resources required to grow a variety of food grains, vegetables and fruits. The major produces are that of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, oilseeds and cotton. Even jute was also commercially produced here, but after the industry slowly slackened due to the government inefficiency and lackadaisical management from the owners of the jute factories, the farmers stopped growing this cash crop.

Saharanpur Basmati Rice

The agriculture in India is predominantly devoted to the production of rice and wheat. Rice being a major part of the staple diet in India, a significant portion is consumed locally, but Saharanpur has export zones lined up for producing export quality Basmati rice with a yield of about 15000 tons per year. It is also very close to the prominent wholesale markets and has sufficient ‘cold storage’ facility to store the food grains. The government has contributed by standardizing the process of marketing the produce, through the fair price shops, which gives the farmers their value for money.

Government help is also going at par with the commercialization. Both the national and state government is encouraging investment and effort in the food processing sector. Special zones have been created to boost the production of vegetables and fruits along side dairy farming. The area is attracting investments to a tune of about $2 million in a year.

The Mango Mania