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Crops and cropping systems

Punjab has a total cropped and net sown area of 7.8 and 4.1 m ha, respectively with a cropping
intensity of 204%. Almost all the cultivated area is tube well irrigated (99.9%). Major crops of
Punjab are wheat (3.5 m ha), paddy (2.97 m ha), basmati rice (0.76 m ha), maize (0.127 m ha),
cotton (0.3 m ha). Other crops grown in state are sugarcane, groundnut, sesamum, sunflower,
rapseed and mustard. Main cropping system of Punjab is paddy-wheat followed by cotton-wheat
in the south-western zone and maize-wheat in the kandi zone. A total of 2.8 m tones of food
grains were produced during 2015-16. Punjab contributed 28.5 and 38% paddy and wheat,
respectively, to the central pool during 2016-17.

Fertilizer consumption

Total consumption of N, P 2O 5 and K 2O was 13,96,635, 3,69,735 and 52,181 tonnes, respectively
-1
in 2016-17. Average consumption of NPK in state comes out to be 213 kg ha . The actual ratio
of N, P and K consumption in Punjab is much higher than the recommended ratio of 4:2:1.
Consumption of ZnSO 4 was 19907 and 5840 tonnes in Kharif and Rabi season, respectively.