Planting of pulses and maize has picked up even as paddy continues to make big gains in the ongoing summer cropping season with farmers bringing in more area under the cereal crop in West Bengal and Telangana.

As of March 12, pulses acreage has moved up by about a fifth with both black gram and green gram gaining acreage in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Bihar among others. Black gram was planted on 1.18 lakh ha (0.79 lakh ha in previous year), while green gram area stood at 1.96 lakh ha (1.81 lakh ha).

Paddy continued to rise with acreage higher at 33.72 lha (26.65 lha). West Bengal has seen paddy acreage rise to 9.83 lakh ha, followed by Telangana at 9.77 lakh ha and Karnataka at 2.59 lakh ha. Among coarse cereals, maize area has been higher at 3.94 lakh ha (3.23 lha), while jowar and bajra have seen a decline. Overall oilseeds area has seen a marginal increase at 5.88 lakh ha (5.54 lakh ha). Overall acreage under the summer crops stood 22 per cent higher at 47.93 lakh ha (39.38 lakh ha).

Storage levels

The actual rain fall across the country was lower by 55 per cent at 4.2 mm against the normal during the first 12 days of March. According to the Central Water Commission the live water storage in 130 reservoirs across the country was 88 per cent of the live storage in the corresponding period as of February 25. Also the water storage is 123 per cent of the last 10 year average for the period.

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