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AGRICULTURE
Over 76 percent of the people are dependent on agriculture. Out of the gross cropped area of 87.46 lakh hectares, 18.79 lakh hectares are irrigated. Rice, pulses, oil seeds, jute, mesta, sugarcane, coconut and turmeric are important crops. There are also cash crops like tea, cotton and rubber. The state contributes one-tenth of the rice production in India. Apart from irrigation, floods, droughts, low yield per hectare and division and fragmentation of holdings are the most important agricultural problem of the state. Jute, gram, sesame, ragi, mustard, rape and maize are second-ranking crops in different districts. District-wise, jute ranks second in Cuttack and Balasore, gram in Puri and Phulabani. Maize in Mayurbhanj.
Food grains include cereals, millets and pulses. Among cereals, the most important crop was rice. It was followed by ragi, maize, wheat, small millets and bajra. All these, except wheat are coarse cereals and belong to hardier crops which are mostly cultivated in the middle mountainous and rolling uplands and plateaus of Orissa. Whereas rice is confined to the coastal plains, the river valleys and Hirakud command areas where alluvial soil is found. Coarse cereals are of major importance in Orissa both in production and productivity.
RICE. Among the cereals rice is the most dominant crop. It is concentrated in areas of Cuttack, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Puri, Ganjam, Baleshwar, Koraput, Kendujhar and Kalahandi. Rice cultivation is mostly confined to the alluvial coastal plains and river valleys below the 305 meter contour line because of ideal topographical and soil conditions. PULSES Gram, tur and arhar are the major pulses grown in Orissa. The pulses can be broadly divided into kharif and rabi crops. Irrigated tracts like the Mahanadi delta, the Rushikulya plains and the Hirakud and Badimula regions are the prominent pulse growing areas of Orissa. Production of pulses are concentrated in districts like Cuttack, Puri, Kalahandi, Koraput, Dhenkanal, Balangir and Sambalpur.
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