Comments
With the deficit in India’s south-west monsoon narrowing, the total acreage under all crops has increased to 203.18 lakh hectares (lh) as of June 30 (Friday), up from 202.33 lh a year ago. With a prediction of more than 100 per cent rainfall in July - a crucial month for sowing, the deficit in acreage of paddy and cotton may be covered over the next few weeks, experts said.
“The total area under all crops was more than 70 lh in a week, though many States faced deficient rainfall. Most of the States got heavy rainfall in past 3-4 days which either reduced the overall deficit or moved them to the surplus zone,” said an Agriculture Ministry official.
The acreage of paddy, the main kharif cereal, is down 26.3 per cent at 26.55 lh, while all pulses combined reported 1.9 per cent lower at 18.15 lh and cotton acreage, which took a lead initially this year, has declined 13.9 per cent to 40.49 lh from 47.04 lh as planting is down in Maharashtra, Telangana, Punjab and Karnataka. But, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have reported higher acreage under cotton. Jute and mesta acreage reported fall of 11.9 per cent at 5.81 lh.
Sugarcane higher
After trailing for some weeks, the oilseeds acreage increased 14.5 per cent to 21.55 lh as of Friday. The sowing area under nutri- and coarse cereals has increased 61.7 per cent at 36.23 lh due to higher planting of bajra. Sugarcane acreage is also higher from the year-ago period by 2.8 per cent at 54.40 lh.
Among the pulses, tur has been sown on 1.11 lh (against 5.40 lh year-ago), moong 11.23 lh (8.73 lh), urad on 1.72 lh (1.61 lh) and other pulses on 4.09 lh (2.76 lh). In the oilseeds category, groundnut sowing is reported on 15.77 lh (11.74 lh) and soyabean on 4.61 lh (5.57 lh). In coarse cereals, maize area dropped to 8.10 lh (10.70 lh), bajra 25.67 lh (9.25 lh) and jowar 0.98 lh (0.94 lh).
Sowing activities picked up last week, particularly in those States where monsoon covered, officials said. Hopefully, there will be more planting this year under all crops as July forecast indicates overall distribution will be good, barring a few pockets in interior Karnataka, interior Tamil Nadu and south Bihar, officials said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.