Summer planting: Pulses, coarse cereals lift total acreage by 16% to 62 lakh ha

Acreage under pulses crops have increased 20 per cent, while that of coarse cereals by 28 per cent in the ongoing summer planting season.

This is despite a 45 per cent deficient rainfall during March.

The total acreage under summer crops has gone up by16.6 per cent at 62.03 lakh ha compared with the same period a year ago.

Pulses acreages increased to 6.52 lakh ha against 5.43 lakh ha last year as farmers have increased the area under both green gram and black gram.

Acreage under green gram was up at 4.41 lakh ha (4.03 lakh ha), while the area under black gram rose to 1.86 lakh ha (1.21 lakh ha).

Tamil Nadu has reported summer pulses area of 2.06 lakh ha, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have reported less than a lakh ha.

Storage levels good

The live water storage in 130 reservoirs was reported at 86 per cent of the same period last year and 122 per cent of the 10-year average as on March 25.

The trend of summer sowing progress is positive as on date and there was no impact of the pandemic on the sowing, a Ministry of Agriculture statement said. About 48 per cent of the rabi crops have been harvested so far, the statement said.

The increase in area under maize has lifted the coarse cereals acreage to 9.52 lakh ha (7.44 lakh ha). Maize acreage was up 28 per cent at 6.42 lakh ha (5.01 lakh ha) and bajra has seen an increase at 2.33 lakh ha (1.52 lakh ha).

However, area under jowar cultivation declined to 0.59 lakh ha (0.75 lakh ha). Gujarat’s coarse cereals acreage stands at 2.04 lakh ha, while that of Uttar Pradesh is at 1.68 lakh ha and West Bengal at 1.52 lakh ha.

Among oilseeds, groundnut area was up at 4.96 lakh ha (4 lakh ha), while sesamum area was up at 3.21 lakh ha (2.83 lakh ha). Total oilseeds area is up at 8.69 lakh ha (7.29 lakh ha).

Paddy, the grosser

Paddy continues to be the major summer crop at 37.30 lakh ha (33.02 lakh ha). West Bengal at 10.42 lakh ha, Telangana at 10.05 lakh ha and Karntaka at 2.76 lakh ha were the major States where rise in summer paddy area was reported.