Crop combination

Weavers technique
Submitted by
Anjana b suresh
 Crop combination
Crop combination refers to the aggregate of various crops grown/cultivated in an area at a given point of time.

Crop combination is the analysis of the total percentage acreage area occupied by different crops in a given region in an
agricultural year.

The study of crop combinations constitutes an important aspect of agriculture.

It provides a good basis for agricultural regionalization and helps in the formulation of strategy for agricultural
development.

Crops are generally grown in combinations and it is rarely that a particular crop occupies a position of total isolation.
 The distribution maps of crops and their concentration are interesting and help in knowing the density and
concentration of individual crops, but it is even more important to view the integrated assemblage of the various crops
in a region.
 Calculation Of Crop Combination

The methods applied for the demarcation of crop combination regions may be summed up under two
categories
The Arbitrary Choice Method

In the arbitrary choice method, the first two or the first three crops in the area are included and the rest of the
crops are excluded from the combination. This is an unscientific method as the crops are excluded from the
combination without any consideration of their percentage area and their monetary value.
The Statistical Method
This method being based on the statistical formula is more scientific and reliable for the objective grouping of
crops.
 WEAVERS CROP COMBINATION

 In the field of agricultural geography John C. Weaver (1954) was the first to use statistical technique
to establish the crop combi­nation of the Middle West (USA).
 Weaver computed the percentage of total harvested cropland occupied by each crop that held as
much as 1 per cent of the total cultivated land in each of the 1081 counties covered in his work.
 Excluding a few counties like Houston and Minnesota in which the crop combination was easy to
ascertain, other counties showed a complex and confused picture of the percentage, occupied by differ­
ent crops.
 Thetheoretical curveforthestandardmeasure­mentwasemployedasfollows:

Monoculture = 100 per cent of the total harvested crop land in one crop.

2- Crop combination = 50 per cent in each of two crops.

3- Crop combination = 33.3 per cent in each of three crops.

4- Crop combination = 25 per cent in each of four crops.

5- Crop combination = 20 per cent in each of live crops.

10-crop combination = 10 per cent in each of 10 crops.

 Merits

 Weaver’s crop combination method is a great statistical tool to delineate the agricultural regions.
 It is specially helpful in agricultural regionalization in the areas of relatively lesser crop diversity.
(monoculture)
 It is a scientific method
 Demerit of Weaver’s Method

Weaver considers crop cultivation as an isolated activity. Whereas, crop cultivation is combined with animal
husbandry, horticulture, floriculture, apiculture etc.

He devised his method to delineate agricultural regions in U.S.A. Where landholding is large. However in
India, landholdings are small and fragmented. Therefore, the diversity of crops vary from field to field.

Using Weaver’s method is a very comprehensive exercise. One has to calculate standard deviation for each
district and check for all the crop combination. It becomes a lengthy exercise.
 Since, the diversity of crops is great in India, this method’s ability to help in regionalization is questionable.
It is so because the total area might be under many different crops. This means that the crop combination
may show each region to be multiple cropping region. Hence, objectivity is lost.
 Reference

 Lotusarise. Com
 Yourarticlelibrary. Com
Thank you