Thanks to normal monsoon rains in most parts of the country, sowing of kharif crops is progressing at satisfactory pace and is marginally higher than last year.
At 90.46 million hectare (MH) or 80% of the normal sown area, the combined sown area of key crops – paddy, pulses, oilseeds and sugarcane — was up 2.3% on year on Friday, according to latest data by the agriculture ministry.
However, the lead over last year’s level came down from 10% recorded a three weeks ago. The initial weeks last month this year reported sharper year-on-year growth in sowing partly because of the low base.
Officials said that sowing activities will continue till the middle of September. Due to adequate rainfall in the eastern regions in the last one week paddy sowing in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, have picked up pace.
Monsoon is currently in active phase while the overall rainfall this season till Friday has been 4.4% above the benchmark long period average or normal range. India Meteorological Department has stated that 65% of the 729 odd districts in the country have received rainfall in the range of surplus to normal range.
“While in western region, the monsoon has been favorable, benefiting crops like soybeans and cotton and in the northern and eastern regions, despite recent rainfall impact on the paddy crops remains a concern,” AP Sinha, director, Farlense Group, said.
Till Friday, 2024, the area under paddy at 27.69 MH was up 5% on year. The normal sown area of paddy in kharif period is 40.15 MH.
Sowing of pulses (10.9%) and oilseeds (2.9%) too saw increase because of normal to above-normal monsoon rains in key growing states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
In the southern peninsula, monsoon rainfall has been 26.7% more than the benchmark so far. Going by a five-year average, about 69% of paddy sowing has been completed so far.
Area under pulses such as tur, urad and moong rose sharply at 10.9% to 11.06 MH on year, which is expected to boost pulses production in the 2024-25 season.
More than 3.2% higher sown area in oilseeds — groundnut, soybean and sunflower – is reported at 17.96 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 8.2% on year at 10.8 MH so far, which is 84% 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.
