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Rabi crops or therabi harvest, also known aswinter crops, areagricultural crops that are sown inwinter and harvested in the spring inIndia,Pakistan, andBangladesh.[1] Complementary to the rabi crop is thekharif crop, which is grown after the rabi andzaid crops are harvested one after another respectively.
The word rabi was borrowed fromPersian:ربيع,romanized: rabī,lit. 'spring'.
The wordskharif andrabi have their origins in Arabic. These came to be used in India with the ascent of theMughal empire in the Indian subcontinent and have been widely used ever since. The term is derived from theArabic word for "spring", which is used in theIndian subcontinent, where it is the spring harvest (also known as the "winter crop").
Rabi crops are sown around mid-November, preferably after themonsoon rains are over, and harvesting begins in April / May. The crops are grown either with rainwater that haspercolated into the ground or usingirrigation. Good rain in winter spoils rabi crops but is good forkharif crops.
The major rabi crop in India iswheat, followed bybarley,mustard,sesame andpeas. Peas are harvested early, as they are ready early: Indian markets are flooded with green peas from January to March, peaking in February.
Many crops are cultivated in both kharif and rabi seasons. The crops produced in India are seasonal and highly dependent on these two monsoons.[2] The table below contains a list of differences between the three cropping seasons in India.
The Indian government also offers Minimum Support Price for these crops, so that the farmers can benefit from the harvest.[3]
List as follows. These are rabi harvests rather than crops as that term is usually applied toannuals and notperennials:[4]
