Kharif crop is

Concept

India's farming year is divided into two main cropping seasons based on the south-west monsoon. Kharif (monsoon) crops are sown with the onset of the rains in June-July and harvested in autumn (September-October); they need heavy rainfall and warm, humid conditions through their growth. Rabi (winter) crops are sown after the monsoon withdraws, in October-November, and harvested in spring (March-April); they grow on cool, dry-season conditions and stored soil moisture or irrigation rather than monsoon rain.

Application

• Wheat needs a long spell of cool, dry weather to fill and ripen its grain, so its cultivation begins only once the monsoon has fully receded.

• Paddy needs standing water and heavy rainfall through its growth, so it is sown right at the start of the monsoon.

• Potato tubers rot in waterlogged, humid soil, so most of India plants the crop only after the monsoon rains stop and the weather turns cool.

• Gram is a drought-tolerant pulse that is deliberately sown once the rains end, growing through the cool, dry winter months.

Only one of the four crops matches the monsoon-dependent Kharif profile.

Cross-check

India's Kharif season (roughly June-October) is the season of rice, maize, cotton, jowar, bajra, and sugarcane; the Rabi season (roughly October-March) is the season of wheat, gram, mustard, barley, and peas. This standard agricultural calendar confirms Paddy as the Kharif crop among the given options.

Note: a small Kharif (autumn) potato crop is also grown in a few hill regions of India, but across the country potato is conventionally a Rabi crop — Paddy remains the crop that uniquely fits the standard Kharif definition among the options given.