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The acreage under summer crops, grown before kharif sowing and after rabi harvest, has reached 76.41 lakh hectares (lh) as on Friday. This is 5.1 per cent more than year-ago as the zaid season comes to an end.
Paddy and groundnut reported decline in acreage, while area of all other major crops are higher from last year’s sowing area.
According to weekly update released by Agriculture Ministry, paddy sowing was down 3.3 per cent at 30.33 lh, while oilseeds area is higher by 2.7 per cent at 11.17 lh. Coarse cereals area is up by 9.6 per cent to reach 11.86 lh. Among the coarse cereals, area under maize, after declining for past several weeks, finally ended 2.5 per cent higher at 7.36 lh.
Area under summer pulses reported an increase of 17.3 per cent to 23.05 lh, thanks mainly to 15.6 per cent increase in the coverage of moong crop to 19.16 lh. The area under urad reported a 35.5 per cent surge to 3.65 lh.
The pulses area in major growing States include Madhya Pradesh (9.03 lh), Bihar (4.16 lh), Odisha (2.61 lh), Tamil Nadu (2 lh), Uttar Pradesh (1.53 lh), Gujarat (0.96 lh), West Bengal (0.73 lh), Punjab (0.52 lh), Andhra Pradesh (0.35 lh), Chhattisgarh (0.35 lh) and Maharashtra (0.26 lh).
Storage levels up
According to Central Water Commission data, water levels in 113 reservoirs having irrigation facilities had 35 per cent of their total capacity of 129.76 billion cubic metre (BCM) as on May 26, as against 31 per cent year-ago and 24 per cent considered normal during this time. This comfortable water storage will be helpful for summer crops.
Meanwhile, the cumulative rainfall in pre-monsoon season since March 1 is 3 per cent above normal on pan-India basis as on May 27 after continuing below normal level for almost entire season due to heavy rainfall in past few day. While north-west region is deficient by 65 per cent, the central India has received 37 per cent lower precipitation so far, compared to the long period average.
South peninsula region has received 74 per cent above normal rainfall and East and North-East India 26 per cent more than average precipitation during March 1 and May 27, India Meteorological Department data show.
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