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Pulses such as tur (arhar), urad, moong, and oilseeds — mainly groundnut and sunflower — and maize have turned out to be the hot favourites of farmers, who have brought a larger area under these crops in the ongoing kharif planting season.
The prevailing high prices, coupled with an increase in the support price and bonus incentive announced by the Centre, is the main reason farmers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana have shifted their cropping preference to pulses, resulting in higher acreages for lentils in these States.
As a result, cotton has suffered the acreage loss. Pest attacks such as pink bollworm and whiteflies, and an unattractive price last year has triggered this shift across States from the fibre crop to pulses and other crops.
Similarly, the bullish trend witnessed in recent months has attracted farmers to maize, mainly in States such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The farmers’ interest in rice, the main cereal crop in the kharif season, has been sustained, a trend reflected in a marginal increase of the acreage over last year as transplanting of paddy has picked up in recent weeks on monsoons. An increase in overall kharif acreage so far, aided by widespread distribution of monsoon rains across the country, has raised the prospects of a better kharif harvest this year.
The cumulative rainfall in the monsoon season so far has been normal, with average precipitation across the country pegged at 367 mm. About 80 per cent of the country’s geographical area encompassing 29 metrological sub-divisions has received normal-to-excess rains, resulting in an improvement in reservoir levels in these regions.
The remaining seven metrological sub-divisions, accounting for 20 per cent of the area, have received deficient rainfall. Rainfall has been deficient in Kerala, Gujarat, Saurashtra & Kutch, Western Rajasthan, Himachal and the North-Eastern states.
Besides cotton, acreages of other crops that have suffered a setback this kharif include sugarcane, jute and mesta, bajra, sesamum, niger and castor.
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