Favourable conditions have helped farmers to complete planting in 55 per cent of the normal kharif cropping area in a record time and the area covered till Friday was 44 per cent more than that was sown in the corresponding week last year, at 580 lakh hectares (lh), according to kharif sowing data released by Agriculture Ministry, here. The area planted in the same week last year was 402.6 lh.

Helping farmers plant more this time was due to better monsoon – both in terms of coverage and quantum as well as comfortable water storage in reservoirs. As on Thursday, the country received 275.4 millimetres (mm) of rainfall as against the normal of 243.6 mm during the monsoon season which started on June 1. Similarly, 123 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission on Thursday had 67 per cent more water as compared to the corresponding period last year.

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Pulses, oilseeds and cotton accounted for much of the increase. Aided by significant increase in planting of arhar, urad and moong, the total area under pulses was over 64 lh, a whopping 162 per cent more than same week last year. Much of this spurt in sowing reported from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka even though the acreage is up in many other States too. Similarly, there is a substantial increase in oilseeds planting in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Along with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the other two States, where the planting is significantly higher as compared to last season, these States took the total oilseeds area so far to 139 lh, nearly 85 per cent more than corresponding week last year. At 101 lh, soyabean is just 10 lh shy of the area normally planted.

Cotton sowing

Higher planting in Maharashtra and Karnataka has resulted in cotton area going up by 35 per cent 105 lh as compared to last year. Riding on increased sowing of maize, the area under coarse cereals too went up by 30 per cent to 93 lh.

The planting of rice in many States, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and others was higher than same period last year, taking the total area covered so far to 121 lh, which is 26 per cent higher than 96 lh achieved in the same period last year.

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