The rapid progress of the south-west monsoon across the country has accelerated the sowing pace of key kharif crops such as rice, pulses, oilseeds and cotton. The south-west monsoon, the lifeline of India’s agriculture, has covered the country two weeks ahead of schedule.

Agriculture Ministry data showed that kharif planting has been done in 165.62 lakh hectares so far this year, against 134.18 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year, up 23 per cent. The increase has been largely driven by higher plantings of pulses, coarse cereals, oilseeds and cotton.

While rice has been sown/transplanted in 23.28 lakh ha (against 25.04 lakh ha last year), and pulses acreage stood at 11.04 lakh ha (6.14 lakh ha). Coarse cereals were sown in 19.28 lakh ha (16.74 lakh ha), oilseeds in 27.89 lakh ha (5.29 lakh ha), and cotton in 34.87 lakh ha (29.07 lakh ha), an official release said. The country as a whole has received 167.5 mm of rains during the June 1-26 period, about 27 per cent excess over the normal weighted average for the period. Half of the 36 metrological sub divisions, covering 65 per cent of the country’s geographical area, have received excess rainfall so far.

Thirteen sub divisions, accounting for 24 per cent of the area, have received normal rains, while only five sub divisions, accounting for 11 per cent of the country’s total area, have received deficient rainfall during the period.

The better-than-normal rain so far has helped improve the water levels in the main reservoirs across the country that stood at 43.222 billion cubic metres as of June 25, accounting for 27 per cent of the total capacity of 155.799 billion cubic metres.

Water level higher According to the Central Water Commission, which monitors the live storage of 91 important reservoirs, the current water level is 11 per cent greater than the corresponding last year period and 46 per cent higher than the last 10 years’ average.

The States having better storage than last year for the corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Those having the same storage as the corresponding period last year are Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.

Rajasthan, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have lesser storage than the previous year period.

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