The agriculture ministry has estimated the area covered under different crops at 140 lakh hectares so far as against 154 lakh hectares covered during the same period last year.

"The decline in area under various crops is mainly due to the lack of rains in Madhya Pradesh, where there is a decline of about 10 lakh hectares ," special secretary of agriculture ministry JNL Srivastava told PTI. He said the lull in monsoon during the first two weeks of July had resulted in shrinkage of area under all crops, including, coarse cereals, rice, cotton and soyabean.

In Madhya Pradesh, the area under rice cultivation is currently estimated to be under 23.50 lakh hectares as against 35.80 lakh hectares covered during the sameperiod last year.

"The shortfall in acreage may well be made up in the remaining period of sowing as monsoon has gained momentum all over the country from the last week," Shrivastava said.

He said 71 per cent of the geographical area of the country has received normal or excess rains.

Punjab has witnessed an increase of about 1.5 lakh hectares in area under rice cultivation due to the shift from irrigated cotton to paddy, officials said.

Farmers in Punjab are now moving to rice as they had suffered two successive crop failures in cotton, they said.

Despite the decline area under cultivation in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, cotton crop was in 1999-2000 estimated to be of the same level as last year as planting was still continuing in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka.

While West Bengal has reported an increase of about five lakh hectares under rice cultivation, the area under jute is estimated to have fallen to eight lakh hectares from about 13.8 lakh hectares coveredduring the last year.

Sowing of jowar is also currently lagging behind as compared to last year's level by about seven lakh hectares, officials said.

As against the normal area of 56 lakh hectares under jowar only 30 lakh hectares have been sown till the third week of July as compared to 37.5 lakh hectares during the same period last year, they said.

Srivastava said pulse production during 1999-2000 kharif season was expected to be more than last year due to high prices of the comodity in the domestic market resulting from the demand-supply gap.

In Madhya Pradesh alone, a total of 52.7 lakh hectares is estimated to be brought under pulses cultivation as against 57 lakh hectares last year and 52 lakh hectares in 1997-98.

Country is estimated to have produced nearly 102.5 million tonnes of foodgrains during 1998-99 kharif season covering about 396 lakh hectares.