Rabi crop

Rabi crops or Rabi harvest are agricultural crops sown in winter and harvested in the spring in the South Asia. The term is derived from the Arabic word for "spring", which is used in the Indian subcontinent, where it is the spring harvest (also known as the "winter crop").

The rabi crops are sown around mid-November, after the monsoon rains are over, and harvesting begins in April/May. Their main source of water is rainwater that has percolated into the ground; they require irrigation. A good rain in winter spoils the rabi crops but is good for kharif crops.

The major rabi crop in India is wheat, followed by barley, mustard, sesame and peas. Peas are harvested early, as they are ready early: Indian markets are flooded with green peas from January to March, peaking in February.

The rabi season starts with the onset of the north-east monsoon in October. Many crops are cultivated in both kharif and rabi seasons. The agriculture crops produced in India are seasonal in nature and highly dependent on these two monsoons.

Crop

A crop is any cultivated plant, fungus, or alga that is harvested for food, clothing, livestock fodder, biofuel, medicine, or other uses. In contrast, animals that are raised by humans are called livestock, except those that are kept as pets. Microbes, such as bacteria or viruses, are referred to as cultures. Microbes are not typically grown for food, but are rather used to alter food. For example, bacteria are used to ferment milk to produce yogurt.

Major crops include sugarcane, pumpkin, maize (corn), wheat, rice, cassava, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton.

Based on the growing season, the crops grown in India can be classified as kharif crops and rabi crops.

See also

Crop (anatomy)

A crop (sometimes also called a croup or a craw, or ingluvies) is a thin-walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract used for the storage of food prior to digestion. This anatomical structure is found in a wide variety of animals. It has been found in birds, some non-avian dinosaurs, and in invertebrate animals including gastropods (snails and slugs), earthworms,leeches, and insects.

Bees

Cropping is used by bees to temporarily store nectar of flowers. When bees "suck" nectar, it is stored in their crops.

Birds

In a bird's digestive system, the crop is an expanded, muscular pouch near the gullet or throat. It is a part of the digestive tract, essentially an enlarged part of the esophagus. As with most other organisms that have a crop, the crop is used to temporarily store food. Not all birds have a crop. In adult doves and pigeons, the crop can produce crop milk to feed newly hatched birds.

Scavenging birds, such as vultures, will gorge themselves when prey is abundant, causing their crop to bulge. They subsequently sit, sleepy or half torpid, to digest their food.

Cropping (image)

Cropping refers to the removal of the outer parts of an image to improve framing, accentuate subject matter or change aspect ratio. Depending on the application, this may be performed on a physical photograph, artwork or film footage, or achieved digitally using image editing software. The term is common to the film, broadcasting, photographic, graphic design and printing industries.

Cropping in photography, print & design

In the printing, graphic design and photography industries, cropping refers to removing unwanted areas from a photographic or illustrated image. One of the most basic photo manipulation processes, it is performed in order to remove an unwanted subject or irrelevant detail from a photo, change its aspect ratio, or to improve the overall composition. In telephoto photography, most commonly in bird photography, an image is cropped to magnify the primary subject and further reduce the angle of view when a lens of sufficient focal length to achieve the desired magnification directly is not available. It is considered one of the few editing actions permissible in modern photojournalism along with tonal balance, colour correction and sharpening. A crop made from the top and bottom of a photograph may produce an aspect which mimics the panoramic format (in photography) and the widescreen format in cinematography and broadcasting. Both of these formats are not cropped as such, rather the product of highly specialised optical configuration and camera design.