Summer crops have been sown in about 69.75 lakh hectares till April 16, an increase of 17% over previous year’s 59.82 lakh ha. This is mainly on account of increase in the area under pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals and paddy.

The trend in summer sowing is good as on date. The second wave of Covid-19 pandemic has not impacted the progress in the cultivation of summer crops in the country, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Pulses acreage increased by 50 per cent to 9.51 lakh hectares (lh) over previous year’s 6.33 lh. Greengram has been planted on 6.79 lh (4.61 lh in same period last year), while the area under black gram increased to 2.42 lh (1.54 lh).

Similarly, the area under coarse cereals grew to 11.18 lh against last year’s 10.98 lh. This is mainly due to higher area under maize at 7.10 lh (6.83 lh). Area under bajra has remained constant at 3.23 lh, while the acreage under jowar is marginally lower at 0.64 lh (0.77 lh).

The area under oilseeds is up 10.11 lh against 8.78 lh, a rise of 1.33 lh. Groundnut area increaesd to 5.56 lh (4.89 lh), while farmers have planted sesamum in about 3.97 lh (3.39 lh). Also the area under paddy rose to 38.95 lh against 33.73 lh.

The pre-monsoon rainfall across the country as a whole between March 1 and April 15 was 37 per cent lower than normal. Actual rainfall was 29.9 mm against the normal of 47.7 mm for the period. The IMD on Friday has forecast that monsoon will be normal for the year ahead.

So far, the live water storage in 130 reservoirs monitored across the country is 81 per cent of the live storage of the corresponding period last year and 119 per cent of the average of last 10 years, according to the Central Water Commission report.

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