The latest sowing data from States compiled by the Agriculture Ministry show progressive plantings of most crops, barring rice, sugarcane and jute, to be lower relative to the area covered during this time last year. But the gap is steadily narrowing.

Till last week, the total area sown under cotton was trailing by over 25.5 lakh hectares (lh) compared to the acreage for the corresponding period of 2010. But this week's data show the gap to have reduced to just 3.5 lh. The deficit in oilseeds and pulses has, likewise, fallen from 3.6 lh to 0.7 lh and from 6.9 lh to 4.1 lh respectively.

According to Agriculture Ministry officials, the gap will further narrow in the coming week and thereafter, as the India Meteorological Department has predicted a surge in monsoon activity across the Peninsula. Besides, Gujarat, Vidarbha and the entire central India are expected to receive heavy showers in the next couple of days.

This is good news, considering that the entire stretch from Gujarat and Saurashtra-Kutch to Vidarbha, Marathwada, Telangana, Rayalaseema and North Interior Karnataka had received very poor rains during June. That, in turn, had raised concerns over kharif sowing prospects in this largely rainfed belt, with attendant implications for food inflation.

But July has seen reasonably good rainfall across these regions, leading to a lowering of the cumulative monsoon rain deficit in Marathwada from 52 per cent (till June) to 8 per cent and, likewise, from 41 per cent to 13 per cent in Telangana, from 14 per cent to 11 per cent in Vidarbha, from 88 per cent to 37 per cent in Gujarat and from 72 per cent to 20 per cent in Saurashtra-Kutch.

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