With reservoirs having 50 per cent more water as compared to last year and the country receiving 10 per cent more rainfall than normal, the area under kharif crops jumped 21 per cent to 692 lakh hectares (lh), as compared to 572 lh sown in the corresponding week last year, as per data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday.

While the area under oilseeds crops was 41 per cent higher as compared to the same period last year, pulses registered an increase of nearly one-third. Soyabean, the major kharif oilseeds crop, almost touched its normal area with planting covering nearly 110 lh already by Friday as compared to the 79 lh planted in the same week last year.

There is a significant 57 per cent increase in groundnut sowing so far with the cultivated area touching 37.6 lh, as compared to the 24 lh planted in the corresponding week last year. There is a 13 per cent increase in the sowing of sesamum, another minor but important kharif oil crop.

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Cotton has almost touched the normal area (121 lh) of planting. Farmers have so far covered 113 lh, which is 17 per cent more than the 96 lh planted in the corresponding week last year. All three major pulses crops — arhar, urad and moong — have been planted over substantially larger areas as compared to the same period last year. While arhar, at nearly 31 lh, is planted in nearly 38 per cent area, urad area was up 43 per cent at over 25 lh and moong planting is 30 per cent more at 21 lh.

Rice planting is gradually picking up momentum, particularly with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar together planting an additional area of 22 lh. The total rice sown area in the country as of now is around 168 lh, which is nearly 19 per cent more than the 142 lh planted the same week last year.

Double-digit increase in planting of maize and bajra has helped push up the total area under coarse cereals by 12 per cent to around 116 lh as compared to the corresponding period last year.

Total rainfall

As on Thursday, the country had received a cumulative rainfall of 338.3 mm against the normal of 308.4 mm.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, in a video message, appealed to all farmers to enrol themselves in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which he said would help compensate crop losses in an unforeseen calamity. In February, the government revamped its flagship crop insurance scheme and made the enrolment voluntary from the current kharif season onwards.

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