While the eastern and north-eastern regions continue to get less than normal rainfall, the south-western monsoon rain has been in excess in the rest of the country, boosting kharif sowing.
According to latest data by India Meteorological Department, the cumulative rainfall across the country during June 1 ? July 25 has been 16% more than normal with north-western and central regions getting 27% and 43% more rain than the Long Period Average (LPA), which is the average countrywide annual rainfall (89 cm) recorded between 1951 and 2000.
An agriculture ministry official said though the monsoon has picked up pace in northern India, in the last one week, many districts in north-eastern states, Bihar, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu have large chunks of district getting scanty rainfall.
In the north-eastern states, 25 out of 72 districts have got more than 50% deficit rainfall while states like Bihar and Jharkhand have 11 and 6 districts getting scanty rainfall. Even in Tamil Nadu, 13 out of 32 districts have less rainfall.
Due to excess rainfall in most parts of the country, kharif-sowing activities have picked up pace. The ministry of agriculture data on Friday said the total sowing of kharif crops such as rice, pulses, coarse cereals, oil seeds, cotton and sugarcane have crossed 74 million hectare (MH) against only 63 mh reported during same period last year.
The key kharif crop – rice ? has been sown in close to 20 million hectare against 18.4 mh reported during same period last year. Agricultural experts said many farmers have started transplanting paddy while a chunk of farmers have been busy preparing nurseries.
Trilochan Mohapatra, director, Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), a Cuttack-based national institute under the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, said rice sowing this year is set to be completed by end of August.
Total area under rice cultivation in the country is estimated at around 44 mh. More than 88% of rice is grown in the kharif season and sowing would continue till August.
Rice production during 2012-13 was 104 mt, out of which 90 mt was grown in the kharif season. Due to the monsoon failure in 2009-10, paddy production declined 14% to 89.09 mt.
Kharif pulses sowing rose by more than 7.3 mh against only 3.9 mh reported same period last year. Similarly, oilseeds sowing has risen sharply to 14.8 mh against only 11.7 mh achieved in the previous year. ?If monsoon remains normal during next two months, we could expect a bumper harvest,? an agriculture ministry official said.