Choosing the Right Crop

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we are going to see how to choose the Right Crop.


The following are some of the important parameters to consider for identifying or narrowing down to the right crop. It does not mean these factors alone will be be sufficient but can give you a headstart in finalzing the crop.

Please note that the mention of crops includes everything (Plants, Animals etc).

The basic parameters are:-

1. Land Bank
2. Soil Type
3. Water Availability
4. Gestation Period
5. Net Profit

Land Bank means the available land on hand.  This is a very important parameter as this will decide the scale of operations.

Soil Type will help to decide the Crops that can be grown in that land.

Water Availability - Helps you to identify the Crops based on the water resources available.

Gestation Period - How much time you will have to wait before you can start your harvest?

Net Profit - When there are multiple choices available considering the first four parameters, this will be the deciding factor.

You may be surprised to note that I have not mentioned Money as an important factor.  I feel that Money is NOT  the deciding factor but it is necessary to an extent.
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I am presenting few ideas here and I hope this will kindle your imagination further.

Do you know that even without owning any Land Bank you can do agriculture related activity?

1. You can do Honey Bee farming from your house (Urban as well as Rural).
2. You can do Fish Farming in your Village Tank, Pond etc (after getting the permissions and paying the necessary fees)

Is there any activity that can be done in small land holding (less than 2400 sq ft)?

1. You can go for Mushroom Farming
2. You can go for Rabbit Farming
3. You can go for Pigeon Farming
4. You can go for Sericulture Farming

If anybody has more ideas, please let me know.  I will add to this list.