Thanks to surplus monsoon rains in most parts of the country, sowing of kharif crops is progressing at a satisfactory pace and is marginally higher than last year.
At 97.98 million hectare (MH) or 90% of the normal sown area, the combined sown area of key crops – paddy, pulses, oilseeds and sugarcane — was up 1.3% on year on Monday, according to latest data by the agriculture ministry.
Officials said that sowing activities will continue till the middle of September. Due to adequate rainfall in the eastern regions in the last fortnight paddy sowing in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, have picked up pace.
The overall rainfall this season till Monday has been 6.3% above the benchmark long period average or above normal range. India Meteorological Department has stated that out of 725 districts in the country, 71% have received rainfall in the range of ‘large excess’ to ‘normal’ range so far.
However, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram remain rain deficient.
While met department has predicted ‘above normal’ rainfall during August-September 2024, augurs well for the kharif crops, consulting firm ICRA has stated that it “remains watchful of the episodes of heavy rainfall and flooding across some states that could harm the standing crops and impact perishable prices during this period,”.
Till Monday, 2024, the area under paddy at 33.17 MH was up 4.2% on year. The normal sown area of paddy in kharif period is 40.15 MH.
Sowing of pulses (6.67%) and oilseeds (0.8%) too saw an increase because of normal to above-normal monsoon rains in key growing states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
“Monsoon and sowing have been progressing well and the expectation is that the arrival of fresh supplies in the market should over the next few months curb the food price rise,” Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist, Crisil said.
Area under pulses such as tur, urad and moong rose by 6.67% to 11.74 MH on year, which is expected to boost pulses production in the 2024-25 season.
The country’s import of pulses in the current fiscal is likely to decline to 4 to 4.5 million tonne (MT) from a record 4.73 MT in the FY24 because of adequate monsoon rain and substantial imports last fiscal, Bimal Kothari, chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) has said.
More than 0.99% higher sown area in oilseeds — groundnut, soybean and sunflower – is reported at 18.36 MH. Oilseeds sowing is expected to be completed in the next fortnight.
Officials said that higher oilseeds output in the current kharif season is expected to reduce the country’s dependence on edible oil imports. Currently, around 60% of the country’s annual consumption of edible oil of around 28 million tonne (MT) is met through imports of palm, soyabean and sunflower oils.
Sugarcane sowing has been completed so far with a total sown area of 5.76 MH, which is higher than normal sown area compared to the previous year. Cotton area is down sharply 8.8% on year at 11.04 MH so far, which is 85% of the average area for the last five years.
The agriculture ministry has set a target of record food grains production of 340 MT during the 2024-25 crop year (July-June), 3.4% higher than 328.8 MT estimated during the previous crop year. This includes 159.97 MT from the kharif season, 164 MT from the rabi season and 16.43 MT from the summer season.
