The area of high rainfall is a broad belt in the part of the peninsula merging northward with the Indian plains and southward with coastal plains. The low rainfall area is a belt extending from the Punjab plains across the Vindhya mountains into the western part of the Deccan, widening considerably in the Mysore plateau. Though it is still a predominantly rural country, India's urban population of 243 million exceeds the total populations of most developing nations. It forms the basis of many premier industries of India, including the textile, jute, and sugar industries. Both food and nonfood crops are grown.
Food grains consist of cereals such as rice, wheat, jowar, bajra, and maize as well as pulses.
Important nonfood crops are cotton, jute and tobacco. India became self sufficient in rice in 1977. That was achieved through a combination of increasing the area under cultivation and increasing cropping intensity. In 1995 India ex-ported nearly 4.2 million tons of rice in response to the large increase in demand in the world market. Rice environments Rice environments in India are extremely diverse.