Provide information about various crops grown and the importance of agriculture in India.

(N/A) India is primarily an agricultural country. Agriculture accounts for approximately $33$ percent of India's $GDP$ and employs nearly $62$ percent of the population.
After India's independence,one of the main challenges facing the country was producing enough food for the increasing population,as only limited land is fit for cultivation.
- India had to strive to increase yields per unit area from existing farmland.
The development of several high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice in the mid-$1960s$,as a result of various plant breeding techniques,led to a dramatic increase in food production in our country. This phase is often referred to as the Green Revolution.
Many hybrid crops of high-yielding varieties are seen in India:
Wheat and Rice: During the period $1960$ to $2000$,wheat production increased from $11$ million tonnes to $75$ million tonnes,while rice production went up from $35$ million tonnes to $89.5$ million tonnes. This was due to the development of semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and rice.
- Nobel laureate Norman $E$. Borlaug,at the International Centre for Wheat and Maize Improvement in Mexico,developed semi-dwarf wheat.
In $1963$,several varieties such as Sonalika and Kalyan Sona,which were high-yielding and disease-resistant,were introduced all over the wheat-growing belt of India.
Semi-dwarf rice varieties were derived from $IR-8$ (developed at the International Rice Research Institute $(IRRI)$,Philippines) and Taichung Native-$1$ (from Taiwan). The derivatives were introduced in $1966$. Later,better-yielding semi-dwarf varieties,Jaya and Ratna,were developed in India.
Sugarcane: $Saccharum$ $barberi$ was originally grown in North India but had poor sugar content and yield. Tropical canes grown in South India,$Saccharum$ $officinarum$,had thicker stems and higher sugar content but did not grow well in North India.