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There are certain special terms used to understand the cropping seasons of India. The agricultural crop year in India is from July to June. The Indian cropping season is classified into two main seasons- (i) kharif and (ii) rabi based on the monsoon. The kharif cropping season is from July to October
during the South-West/Summer Monsoon and the rabi cropping season is from October to March (North-East/Returning/Winter Monsoon). The crops grown between March and June are summer crops, known as jayads.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are two other countries that are using the term ‘kharif’ and ‘rabi’ to describe their cropping patterns. The terms ‘kharif’ and ‘rabi’ originate from Arabic language where kharif means autumn and rabi means spring.
The kharif crops include rice, maize, sorghum, pearl millet/bajra, finger millet/ragi (cereals), arhar (pulses), soyabean, groundnut (oilseeds), cotton, etc. The rabi crops include wheat, barley, oats (cereals), chickpea/gram (pulses), linseed, mustard (oilseeds) etc.