With just a fortnight left for completion of sowing, the area under kharif crops was just above last year’s level as on Friday. So far, 97.9 million hectare (MH) has been covered under the kharif crops, which is 90% of the normal sown area, recording a rise of 0.75% on year, while a week ago it was up 0.41%.
“In the next two weeks, sowing activities are expected to be completed as major parts of the country have received adequate monsoon rainfall,” an agriculture ministry official told FE. However, after a surplus July, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted ‘below-normal’ rainfall for August, which according to officials may impact the yield of crops including paddy, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, and sugarcane.
Thanks to heavy downpour over northwest, central and southern parts of the country in the last few weeks, paddy transplanting is currently up 4.7% year-on-year (y-o-y). A month back, the gap was 9.8%.
So far, rice has been transplanted on 32.8 MH, 82% of the normal sown area. Sowing will be completed in the next two weeks and harvesting of crops will commence from October 1.
Officials said there has been a delay in paddy sowing in several regions of central and south peninsula because of later arrivals of monsoon rains.
At present, only eastern Uttar Pradesh (-29%), Jharkhand (- 36%), Bihar (-32%), West Bengal (-29) and Rayalaseema (-24%) are reporting deficient rainfall. Rest of the key paddy producing states – Telangana, Chhattistgarh and Odisha – have received adequate rainfall in the last fortnight.
Sowing of pulses – tur, urad and moong – is lagging 7.9% on year so far while the area under oilseeds including groundnut, soybean and sunflower is marginally lower on year. While sugarcane planting has risen 1.5% on year, the area under coarse cereals such as maize, bajra and ragi is up 2.1%.
Cotton sowing is marginally below the last year’s level, while area under sugarcane is up by 1.5% on year. It Is an increase of 15% from the last five year’s average.
According to IMD, overall monsoon rains has been at “normal” level, being just 1% below the benchmark – long period average (LPA) – till Friday. The met department has said 66% of 717 districts in the country have so far received normal or excess rainfall. The remaining 256 districts have received deficient and scanty rainfall.
In the southern peninsula, rainfall is still 8% below the LPA. Northwest and central India regions have received 16% and 4% more rainfall, respectively, than benchmark.
In June, the government had hiked the minimum support prices (MSP) of key kharif crops for 2023-24 season (July-June) by 6-10.4%, the highest increase since 2018-19. The MSP for paddy has been fixed at `2,183/quintal, up 7% on year. India’s foodgrain production rose 5% y-o-y to a new record of 330.5 MT for the 2022-23 crop year, according to the agriculture ministry.