ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the problem of the density of population specifically from the point of view of agricultural productivity. It is the environmental factors, that is the physical and chemical conditions of the soil and the meteorological conditions, which also determine the high or low agricultural productivity of the different natural regions by determining the geographical distribution of crops. In the fertile tracts of the Gangetic Plain and the Gangetic Delta, rice cultivation requires a large labour force for the preparation of seedbeds, transplantation, and other agricultural operations incidental to intensive farming. In the Indo-Gangetic Plain, West, the increasing pressure of the population upon land has also been accompanied by an increasing importance of either heavy-yielding food crops or valuable commercial crops or both. This region is predominantly a wheat-growing region, and the development of canal irrigation has led to an enormous increase of wheat cultivation in almost all the districts belonging to this region.
