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The gap between rabi sowing this year and the previous year has further widened with the difference surpassing more than 3 million hectares for the first time in the current season.
As compared to 622.12 lakh hectares (lh) planted during the corresponding period, the sowing covered only 591.64 lh till Friday, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry.
The worst hit seems to be winter rice, which reported a shortfall of more than 21 per cent in planting, with Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu reporting a huge drop in rice acreage. Tamil Nadu, which accounts for nearly half the rice cultivation in the rabi season, reported a nearly 27 per cent shortfall in sowing.
Wheat cultivation, on the other hand, is restricted to 296.37 lh, which is 2.5 per cent lower than the 304.88 lh reported in the corresponding week in the previous rabi season. The shortfall was mainly from Maharashtra and Gujarat, which are suffering a drought currently.
The acreage under pulses dropped to 151.6 lh, a little over 6 per cent lower than in the same period in 2017-18. The drop is mainly due to less sowing of gram — the main rabi pulse crop — in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat.
Higher sowing of peas, kulthi
Though there was a slight increase in pulses acreage in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, it wasn’t enough to pull up the numbers. Two pulse varieties that have reported higher sowing this year were green peas and kulthi, which are substantially higher than in the same period last year.
Another group of crops hit by drought conditions is coarse cereals. The subdued sowing in Maharashtra and Karnataka has led to a 14 per cent fall in acreage, which is 47 lh as compared to 54.63 lh in the corresponding period in the previous year.
A good showing by the mustard crop, mainly in Rajasthan, has somehow helped oilseeds come up close to the levels last year. The total area covered under oilseeds so far is around 79 lh, as per the official data.
Meanwhile, the Central Water Commission reported that the cumulative water storage in 91 major reservoirs monitored by it was 74.23 billion cubic metres, which is 46 per cent of the total capacity of these water bodies.
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