Kharif sowing just above year-ago level; paddy area up 4.1%, scanty rainfall this month may hit yield

Thanks to heavy downpour over northwest, central and southern parts of the country in the last few weeks, paddy transplanting is currently up 4.1% year-on-year (y-o-y).

Written by Sandip Das

August 19, 2023 03:00 IST

The centre at IIM, Ahmedabad is carrying out the survey amongst beneficiaries for PMFBY with a sample size of 3500.

With just a week left for completion of sowing, the area under kharif crops was just above last year’s level as on Friday. So far, 102.2 million hectare (MH) has been covered under the kharif crops, which is 94% of the normal sown area, recording a marginal increase of 0.09% on year.

“Sowing activities are expected to be completed by next week, “ an agriculture ministry official told FE.

However, after a surplus July, the scanty rainfall so far this month according to officials may impact the yield of crops including paddy, pulses and oilseeds. Kharif crops yield would be crucial to curb spike in food prices.

Thanks to heavy downpour over northwest, central and southern parts of the country in the last few weeks, paddy transplanting is currently up 4.1% year-on-year (y-o-y). At the beginning of last month, the gap was 9.8%.

So far, rice has been transplanted on 36.07 MH, 90% of the normal sown area. Sowing will be completed in the next 10 days as sowing has been delayed in eastern regions because of late arrival of monsoon rains and harvesting of crops will commence from October 1.

Experts because of this season floods in part of Punjab and delay in arrivals of monsoon over easter India could impact kharif paddy, which accounts for 80% of the country’s rice production. In anticipation of a possible drop in production and higher cereal inflation, the government banned exports of white rice last month.