Despite rain deficits, Gujarat achieves 95% of normal sowing

As the second major spell of heavy monsoon rains drenched almost the entire Gujarat in the last week, the western state has heaved a sigh of relief with average rain deficit declining to 23 per cent as progressive farmers have completed sowing in 95% of the average acreage this kharif season.

Interestingly, tobacco cultivation in Gujarat is being replaced due mainly to the State Government actively promoting horticulture as a lucrative business proposition. This year’s tobacco cultivation is less than 18 per cent of what it was just three years ago.

According to the latest statistics available with the State Agriculture Department, as on September 1, as against the 86.80 lakh hectares of average normal sowing acreage over the last three years, sowing has been completed in 82.58 lakh hectares. Last kharif season, sowing had been done in a total of 86.81 lakh hectare, official sources told Business Line on Friday.

Also despite delayed rains, the state received almost 12 per cent of the average normal rainfall of the season in the last week alone, thus reducing deficit to just 23 per cent. Normally, a deficit of up to 20 per cent is considered normal rainfall.

The Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat have already received nearly 95 per cent of their average normal annual rainfall while other parts of the state have received 75 per cent. Since August 31, Kutch received 22 per cent of its total annual rains. The weather department has predicted a fresh spell of downpour from September 10, which is expected to wipe out water deficit this year. In fact, September is expected to see more rains than previous months.

Taking advantage of delayed but bountiful rains, farmers have sown cotton in 30 lakh hectare (ha) as against last year’s 26.87 lakh ha, groundnut in 12.24 lakh ha (16.60 lakh ha), paddy in 7.53 lakh ha (7.85 lakh ha), maize in 3.16 lakh ha (3.42 lakh ha), tuar in 2.11 lakh ha (2.24 lakh ha), guarseed in 2.84 lakh ha (4.69 lakh ha) and vegetables in 1.82 lakh ha (1.97 lakh ha).

Delayed rains also warded off fears of fodder shortage for cattle as fodder acreage has increased from 9.03 lakh ha to 10.21 lakh ha so far.

An interesting feature of the current sowing season is the continuous decline in tobacco acreage. As against a three-year average acreage of 41,600 ha, tobacco was sown only in 10,300 ha last year, a figure that has further been reduced to just 7,400 ha this season. This is only 17.8 per cent of the total average annual average just three years ago.

In fact, due to a varieties of reasons—low product quality, lack of incentives, crop insurance or support price, and overall discouragement due to anti-tobacco campaign nationally—the state’s tobacco production has been slowly replaced by active promotion of horticulture, particularly in the Charator (Central Gujarat) region.

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