Increased sowing of rice, pulses, coarse cereals and oilseeds pushed the total area covered under kharif crops till the end of July up by 6.3 per cent to 799.51 lakh hectares (lh) from a total acreage of 752.29 lh in the same period last year.

The acreage under pulses continued to expand with total sowing up to July 29 at 110.35 lh against 78.25 lh in the same period last year.

Karnataka and Maharashtra witnessed the steepest increase in acreage during the period. Pulses sowing increased to 10.01 lh (3.34 lh) in Karnataka and to 13.94 lh (8.52 lh) in Maharashtra.

Transplanting of paddy on 231.92 lh at the end of July was higher than 225.68 lh in the same period last year, with States such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab posting an increase.

Coarse cereals sown increased to 150.76 lh (144.84 lh). While there was a rise in acreage under maize, jowar, small millets and ragi, sowing of bajra declined.

Acreage under oilseeds rose to 159.78 lh compared to 147.98 lh in the same period last year with groundnut, soyabean and sunflower higher and sesamum, niger and castor lower.

Cotton sowing picked up slightly in the last week of July as rains progressed throughout the country, with total acreage at 92.33 lh compared to last year’s 101.91 lh. The difference in acreage compared to last year narrowed to 9.6 lh from about 13 lh a week ago.

Sugarcane sowing till July 29, at 46.83 lh, marginally exceeded last year’s acreage of 47.40 lh, mainly due to a slight increase in acreage in Uttar Pradesh. Cumulative rainfall this monsoon season has been normal at 436.9 mm. About 28 metrological sub-divisions accounting for 77 per cent of the geographical area of the country have received normal-to-excess rains, while the remaining 8 sub-divisions have received deficient rainfall.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW