Which the following points about rice cultivation in India are correct?

A. In West Bengal, three crops of rice are grown in an agricultural year.
B. India is ranked second after China in rice production.
C. Punjab and Haryana started growing rice since 1970s.
D. The yield of rice is very high in rainfed areas of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

A, B and C only

The correct answer is Option (1) → A, B and C only

Rice is a staple food for the overwhelming majority of population in India. Though, it is considered to be a crop of tropical humid areas, it has about 3,000 varieties which are grown in different agro-climatic regions. These are successfully grown from sea level to about 2,000 m altitude and from humid areas in eastern India to dry but irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, western U.P. and northern Rajasthan. In southern states and West Bengal the climatic conditions allow the cultivation of two or three crops of rice in an agricultural year. In West Bengal farmers grow three crops of rice called ‘aus’, ‘aman’ and ‘boro’ (A). But in Himalayas and northwestern parts of the country, it is grown as a kharif crop during southwest Monsoon season. India contributes 21.9 per cent of rice production in the world and ranked second after China in 2017 (B). About one-fourth of the total cropped area in the country is under rice cultivation.

West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab are the leading rice producing states in the country. The yield level of rice is high in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Kerala. In the first four of these states almost the entire land under rice cultivation is irrigated. Punjab and Haryana are not traditional rice growing areas. Rice cultivation in the irrigated areas of Punjab and Haryana was introduced in 1970s following the Green Revolution (C).

The yield of this crop is very low in rainfed areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. (D is incorrect).