Classification based on life of crops/duration of crops:

1. Seasonal crops: A crop completes its life cycle in one season. E.g. rice, Jowar, wheat etc.

2. Two seasonal crops: crops complete its life cycle in two seasons. E.g. Cotton, turmeric, ginger.

3. Annual crops: Crops require one full year to complete its life cycle. E.g. sugarcane.

4. Biennial crops: Crops requires two year to complete its life cycle E.g. Banana, Papaya.

5. Perennial crops: crops live for several years. E.g. Fruit crops, mango, guava etc.

Classification based on cultural method/water:

1. Rain fed: Cultivation of crop mainly based on the availability of rain water. E.g. Jowar, Bajara, Mung etc.

2. Irrigated crops: Crops cultivated with the help of irrigation water. E.g. Chili, sugarcane, Banana, papaya etc.

Classification based on root system

1. Tap root system: The main root goes deep into the soil. E.g. Tur, Grape, Cotton etc.

2. Fiber rooted: The crops whose roots are fibrous shallow & spreading into the soil. E.g. Cereal crops, wheat, rice etc.

Classification based on economic importance

1. Cash crop: Grown for earning money. E.g. Sugarcane, cotton.

2. Food crops: Grown for raising food grain for the population and & fodder for cattle. E.g. Jowar, wheat, rice etc.

Classification based on No. of cotyledons

1. Monocots or monocotyledons: Having one cotyledon in the seed. E.g. all cereals & Millets.

2. Dicots or dicotyledonous: Crops having two cotyledons in the seed. E.g. all legumes & pulses and almost all the trees.

Classification based on length of photoperiod required for floral initiation

♤ Most plants are influenced by relative length of the day & night, especially for floral initiation, the effect on plant is known as photoperiodism depending on the length of photoperiod required for floral ignition, plants are classified as:

1. Short-day plants: Flower initiation takes place when days are short less then ten hours. E.g. rice, Jowar, green gram, black gram etc.

2. Long day’s plants: require long days are more than ten hours for floral initiation. E.g. Wheat, Barley, etc.

3. Day neutral plants: Photoperiod does not have much influence for phase change for these plants. E.g. Cotton, sunflower, etc.

Do you know?

The Maharashtra government has proposed setting up a tiger research institute in the state. The proposal was submitted to the central government during the ‘Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation’ that was held recently in New Delhi. The location proposed is Nagpur or Chandrapur, as there are 13 tiger reserves with 350 tigers located within a 300-km radius of either of these two places.