Bountiful rains push up kharif acreage of coarse cereals, cotton

Planting during the current kharif season is set to surpass the previous year’s numbers with monsoon rains received so far exceeding the normal range by 3 per cent.

According to the data released by Agriculture Ministry on Friday, a total of 1,046 lakh hectares (lh) has been planted so far, a tad less than 1,051 lh sown in the corresponding week last year.

The planting of coarse cereals and oilseeds such as soyabean has been particularly good this year. While surge in planting of maize and bajra pushed up the total area under coarse cereals by more than 3 per cent as compared to same week last year, soyabean is now grown on 113 lh, nearly 1 per cent more than in the corresponding week of 2018-19.

While Maharashtra’s area under soyabean matched with its previous year area, Madhya Pradesh planted the oilseed on 2 lh more. Groundnut planting, on the contrary, is 1 per cent lower at 39 lh.

There was a nearly 2 per cent drop in rice transplanting. As against last year’s 382 lh, rice acreage now stands at 374 lh. Among pulses, the area under both arhar and urad is as much as in the same week last year, while moong acreage witnessed a 3-per cent drop.

At 127 lh, the area under cotton continues to be 6 per cent more than what was covered so far in the previous year. Sugarcane has been planted on 52.45 lh so far, nearly 3 per cent lower than that of same period last year.

Meanwhile, reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission (CWC) continue to receive good water inflows. According to the CWC, the cumulative water storage in 113 reservoirs across the country till Thursday was 139.22 billion cubic metre (BCM), which was 11 per cent more than 125.37 BCM in the corresponding week last year.

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