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Bountiful and well-spread-out monsoon rains this year are expected to push up area under rice to a record level. With the country, as a whole, receiving 8 per cent more rains than normal, there has been a 10 per cent increase in rice planting as compared to area covered in the corresponding week last year.
According to kharif sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday, the total area under kharif crops till this week was 1,082 lakh hectares (lha), over 7 per cent more than 1,010 lha planted in the same period in the previous kahrif season.
Paddy transplantation has been carried out over 390 lha — about 35 lha more than that in the corresponding week last year. Telangana, which planted rice over an additional 10 lha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand which increased rice area by 5 lha each and West Bengal with an extra 4 lha rice area accounted for much of this increase.
Pulses, oilseeds gain
Oilseeds are another kharif crop that have done exceedingly well this time with a 13 per cent increase in acreage. With the area under soyabean and groundnut exceeding well beyond the normal planting area, the total oilseeds acreage has gone up to 193 lha (171 lha).
With all three major pulses crops — arhar, urad and moong — reporting higher acreage as compared to the same week last year, the total area under pulses touched almost 135 lha, about 4.6 per cent more than last year.
There is a marginal 2.5 to 3 peer cent increase in area under coarse cereals and cotton, too. While bajra and maize reported higher area as compared to same week last season, coverage of coarse cereals stands at 177 lha till date. Similarly, the area under cotton increased to 128.4 lha, with Telangana where cotton is planted over an extra 6 lha more than compensating for the shortfall in acreage in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Storage levels
According to the India Meteorological Department, total rainfall received across the country was 737.5 millimetres as compared to the normal of 682 mm.
The water storage in 123 reservoirs in the country this week was 131 billion cubic metre (BCM), about 2 per cent more than 129 BCM in the corresponding week last year.
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