Agro-climatic Zones and GI Products
All 15 agro-climatic zones with their signature GI-tagged products attached to each zone.
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Every place on this map
Asked in exams
Actual questions from UPSC and state PCS papers that this map answers. The key detail column carries the correct fact behind each question.
| Exam | Question | Key detail |
|---|---|---|
| UPPCS | What is “jhoom”?: a method of farming | — |
| UPSC 1979 | “Jhum cultivation” is connected with: hilly people | — |
| UPSC 2011 | Lower Gangetic plain, humid and hot all year: paddy and jute | — |
| UPSC 2011 | Arid north, cotton centre, cash crops over food crops: Gujarat | — |
| UPSC PYQ Theme | Darjeeling Tea was India’s first GI product ✓ | registered 2004-05 |
| UPSC 2015 | GI status accorded: 1. Banaras Brocades and Sarees 2. Rajasthani Daal-Bati-Churma 3. Tirupathi Laddu; answer 1 and 3 only ✓ | Banaras 2009, Tirupati Laddu 2014 |
| GI Registry | Banaras Brocades and Sarees: GI tag in 2009 ✓ | Varanasi + 5 more UP districts |
| State PCS | Basmati rice got GI tag in 2016 ✓ | 7 states of the Indo-Gangetic plain |
| State PCS | Banglar Rasogolla got GI tag in 2017 ✓ | West Bengal, after the Odisha dispute |
| GI Registry | Kashmir saffron got GI tag in May 2020 ✓ | — |
| UPTET 2017 | Planning Commission divided India into 15 agro-climatic zones ✓ | 1988; climate, soil, rainfall, water criteria |
| BPSC TRE | Jhum names: Podu in AP and Odisha, Ponam in Kerala ✓ | Bewar in MP, Kumari in Western Ghats, Kuruwa in Jharkhand |
About this map
The fifteen agro-climatic zones plus the GI farm products tied to them, from Basmati to Mithila makhana. Each marker is a zone's representative point; the fact lists its signature GI crops.
Zones are asked as count and classification (who demarcated them, on what basis: rainfall, temperature, soil). GI products are asked as product-to-state matching with deliberately close options.
This is a planning-commission legacy topic that refuses to die in the exam. Fix the zone count (15) and the GI logic (place-linked quality), and the questions answer themselves.