Acreage of major kharif crops have declined compared to last year?s level. Even the revival of south-west monsoon, in the end of August in many regions, have not helped in increasing area under cultivation of many major crops like coarse cereals and pulses.
According to ministry of agriculture statement, rice coverage area increased to 36.1 million hectare during 2008-09 from 34.5 million hectare during 2007-08.
Soybean acreage increased from 8.7 million hectare to 9.5 million hectare, which helped increasing oilseeds coverage from 17 million hectare to 17.4 million hectare during the period. ?This is due to higher crop average reported from Madhya Pradesh, Mahrashtra and Karnataka due to favourable weather conditions,? an agriculture ministry official said.
However, the groundnut coverage decreased marginally from 5.1 million hectare during 2007-08 to 5 million hectares during the 2008-09. This has been attributed to less coverage in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra due to deficit rainfall received in parts of these states.
In case of coarse cereals such as jowar, bajra and maize, the acreage went down from 20.8 million hectares during 2007-08 to 19.2 million hectares during 2008-09.
Lesser planted area for commercial crops such as cotton sugarcane and jute has been reported during the year, the agriculture ministry statement said on Friday. The area of coverage for cotton went down to 8.9 million hectare against 9 million hectare during the corresponding period last year. In case of sugarcane the area went down from 5.2 million hectare to 4.4 million hectare and incase of jute the coverage declines from 8.2 lakh hectare to 7.3 lakh hectare.
In case of pulses like Arhar, Urad, Moong, cultivation area declined from 1.2 million hectares to 99 lakh hectares.