The Hindu Business Line : Kharif crops see gains in coverage

The rise in acreage has been aided by excess rainfall in 26 out of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions in the country. The southern peninsula is the region in the country where the rainfall has been two per cent deficient.

The north western and central regions have received over 100 per cent excess rainfall, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

The country as a whole has received 68 per cent excess rainfall during June 1-7. During the period, it has received 40.2 mm of rainfall against the normal 23.9 mm. There has, however, been a pause in monsoon activity during the second week of this month and it is expected to revive this week.

Storage capacity

As per the Ministry's data, the satisfactory water storage in the 76 major reservoirs in the country is also coming in handy for sowing.

Though the storage level is only 22 per cent of the full reservoir level of 133.02 billion cubic metres (BCM), it is still higher 79 per cent higher than last year's level and 60 per cent more than the average level during the last 10 years.

As per the data, there are 59 reservoirs with storage level more than 80 per cent, four having storage between 50 per cent to 80 per cent and four reservoirs between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of normal storage.

As regards sowing, the area under rice has increased with the gains coming from Haryana, Uttaranchal, West Bengal, Assam and Karnataka. Coverage of coarse cereals is witnessing a fall in maize sowing (4.86 lakh hectares vs 5.07 lakh hectares).

Among the States where coarse cereals are grown, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh are seen lagging behind, perhaps, in line with the monsoon behaviour.

Oilseeds coverage is seeing a dip mainly on fall in sowing of groundnut, sesamum and sunflower.

Groundnut acreage is down by 1,000 hectares mainly due to Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, which together account for a 5,000-hectare decline. Sunflower and sesamum coverage are down 2,000 hectares each with declining being reported from Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and partly in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Sowing, particularly that of oilseeds is expected to pick up once monsoon revives this week.

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