Higher pulses acreage, good monsoon drive up kharif sowing

Sowing of pulses in the ongoing kharif season has outstripped last year’s planting by a wide margin as the area under all crops till August 12, at 954.15 lakh hectares (lh), is a 6.5 per cent increase over sowing in the same period last year at 895.91 lh.

Acreage under pulses increased 33 per cent to 130.17 lh, while the area under rice rose 7 per cent to 326.08 lh; coarse cereals increased by 6 per cent to 173.56 lh and oilseeds posted a rise of 5.13 per cent to 172.25 lh, according to data collated from States and released by the Agriculture Ministry.

While some of the increase in acreage of pulses could be attributed to the fall in cotton sowing, the high domestic prices of all varieties, especially arhar, has also acted as a favourable factor.

Total sowing of all kharif crops, including rice, pulses, cotton and cereals, so far, is already 90 per cent of the normal sown area of 1,062.52 lakh hectares. “With good monsoons, the normal area is likely to get sown by the end of the season this month,” a government official told BusinessLine. Monsoon this year has delivered a surplus of 3 per cent, so far, and about 93 per cent of the areas spanning 33 meteorological sub-divisions have received normal-to-excess rains. Rains have been deficient in three sub divisions: Kerala, Assam and Manipur among others.

Cotton sowing at 99.03 lh was 9 per cent lower than last year’s acreage in the same period, at 108.67 lh. The entire decline could be attributed to the decline in sowing of Bt cotton to 82 lh (99.5 lh).

Sowing of non-Bt cotton, on the other hand, increased to 17 lh from 9.15 lh in the same period last year.

Sowing of sugarcane, too, declined to 45.54 lh (49.51 lh). The acreage under jute and mesta, at 7.56 lh, was marginally lower than the 7.73 lh sown in the same period last year.

Among pulses, tur or arhar has registered a 51 per cent increase in area this kharif, so far, at 48.87 lakh ha against corresonding last year's 32.31 lakh ha. Similarly, urad bean has registered a 27 per cent increase at 31.56 l ha (24.78 l ha last year) and moong bean at 30.15 l ha (22.05 l ha), an increase of 36.73 per cent.

In rice, the main kharif cereal crop, the increase in acreage is mainly on account of higher coverage in states such as Madhya Pradesh (6.37 lakh ha), West Bengal (5.38 l ha), Assam (4.11 l ha) and Bihar (3.90 l ha). On the other hand, Odisha (2.01 l ha) and Telangana (1.12 l ha) have registered a drop in acreage.

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