The different crops grown in an area at a given point of time is called the cropping pattern. The cropping pattern and crop diversification depends on many factors such as climatic conditions, nature
of soil, irrigation facilities, expected benefits, size of land, labor availability, marketing and storage facilities etc. In addition, crop intensity also largely depends on the availability of seeds, fertilizers,
irrigation, post-harvest processing, storage and marketing.
Relief factor in determining crop pattern 
• Relief plays a major role in deciding the cropping pattern of an area. For example,
• Paddy is the main crop on irrigated hill terraces (terraced farming).
• Crops like tea and coffee can be grown only on well drained slopes where there is a good amount of rainfall.
• Apart from these, paddy and sugarcane are hot climate crops which can be grown only on well irrigated areas.
• Wheat can grow best in plains with moderate temperature and rainfall.

Climatic factors Deciding Crop Patterns
• Paddy in India is grown under widely varying conditions of altitude and climate like in Eastern
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, W. Bengal, an East coastal plain areas. Rice cultivation requires a hot and humid climate (21 and 37ºC, 150-300 cm of rainfall), long hours of sunlight and an assured supply of water. It requires deep clayey and loamy soils.
• Wheat in Punjab, Haryana, and West UP - Wheat is primarily a mid-latitude grassland crop and requires a cool climate with moderate rainfall. Winter temperature between 10° to 15°C and summer
temperature between 21°C to 26°C. Whereas the annual average rainfall should be around 75 cm. These conditions become available in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP.
• Coarse cereals like jowar, bajra in Rajasthan - Jowar and Bajra are the most important millet which are used as food in drier parts of the country. It requires marginal rainfall, nearly 40-50 cm
annually. The ideal temperature for its growth is 25°-30°C. Bright sunshine after light showers is very useful in early stages of its growth. All these factors are easily available in Rajasthan.
• Cash crop of sugarcane in Terai belt - Sugarcane belongs to the family of bamboo plants and is indigenous to India. It is the main source of sugar, jaggery and khandsari. It is a long duration
crop and requires 10 to 15 and even 18 months to mature depending on the geographical conditions.
It requires a hot and humid climate with an average temperature of 21°-27°C and 75-150 cm of rainfall. All these conditions are available in the Terai belt.

Conclusion:
Thus we can identify different determinants of cropping patterns favouring different crops. It has been found that the crop selection decisions made by farmers and hence cropping patterns largely
depend on the ecological or climatic conditions (rainfall, humidity and temperature) and relief patterns.
For example, rice is cultivated on a large scale when the monsoon is good. But when the monsoon is weak, instead of rice, another crop like bajra is grown. Due to the highly favorable climatic and relief
conditions for cultivation, cotton in Maharashtra, tea in Assam, bajra in Rajasthan and jute in West Bengal are the major crops.