Heavy monsoon rains in eastern India to boost sowing of rice

With heavy rains lashing eastern parts of the country during last few days, the paddy sowing activities are expected to get a boost during next few weeks, a top agricultural scientist said.

Heavy rainfall in West Bengal, Assam and Orissa has resulted in key paddy growing regions starting their sowing operations.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the eastern and northeastern parts of the country had received only 43.2 millimeter rains against the normal rainfall of 81.5 millimeter.

?The rains during weekend would help boosting paddy sowing activities in the key rice growing regions of eastern India,? TK Adhya, director, Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), a premier institute under Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) told FE.

IMD has predicted that monsoon would cover rest of the country particularly key rice growing areas of Uttar Pradesh and northern India over the next two weeks helping sowing activities.

Meanwhile, an agriculture ministry statement last week on the progress of kharif crops stated that rice has been sown in 10.35 lakh hectare till date as compared to 10.32 lakh hectare of last year?s acreage.

The rice acreage is expected to increase significantly during next four weeks as rains in June and July are key for paddy sowing.

Cotton has been sown in 21.65 lakh hectare as compared to 15.42 lakh hectare last year. Pulses have been sown in 2.86 lakh hectare so far, which is 5,000 hectare more than last year.

Agriculture secretary PK Basu recently hinted at a record rice production of 102 million tonnes during 2011-12.

In 2010-11, rice production was around 94.01 million tonnes ?Kharif sowing of paddy would start after the southwest monsoon rain, which is usually spread across the month of June,? an agriculture ministry official said.

The traditional rice growing states of eastern India constitute Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, which account for 61% of the total rice area and 51% of total rice production in the country.

A major portion of the rice growing area is rainfed.

Due to a normal monsoon last year, the country?s rice production went up to 94.11 million tonne during 2010-11 as against 89.09 million tonne in the previous year.

Due to the failure of the monsoon in 2009-10, paddy production had declined by around 14%.

According to the ministry of agriculture, in 2008-09 India produced 99.18 million tonne of rice.