Despite monsoon being in active mode in the last fortnight, overall sowing of kharif crops — paddy, pulses, oilseeds and cotton — trailed year ago level on Friday , according to the agriculture ministry.
So far, 35.3 million hectare (MH) has been covered under the kharif crops, a decline of 8.6% on year.
Ministry officials said that total area sown till Friday is around 33% of total normal kharif sown area of 109 MH . “Gap in sowing activities is likely to be covered in the next two weeks, as deficiency in monsoon rain, after a late onset, has been largely bridged,” the official said.
Meanwhile, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the rainfall deficiency declined to just 3% or normal level on Friday from over 40% a fortnight ago.
So far sowing of rice, pulses such as tur, urad and moong and oilseeds including groundnut and sunflower have declined by 23.9%, 25.8% and 14.3% respectively on year so far. The sowing of cotton, a cash crop, is around 10.8% less than a year ago.
However, sowing of coarse cereals such as maize, bajra and ragi and sugarcane have been up 19.7% and 4.6% on year respectively.
Key paddy growing states – Jharkhand (-37%), Odisha (-25%), West Bengal (-11%), Bihar (-26%) and Telangana (-36%) are still reporting deficient rainfall.
IMD last week predicted ‘normal’ rainfall for the month of July, when around 40% of the monsoon precipitation typically occurs. Especially widespread in several parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh in the last couple of days would boost area under tur, moong, urad soybean and sunflower.
IMD on Friday predicted enhanced rainfall activity over Gujarat till Suday and along the foothills of Himalayas and adjoining plains during July 9- 12. It has predicted rainfall to continue over Central India till July 9. Officials said normal rainfall predicted in July would boost kharif sowing.
July rainfall, which has a share of more than 40% total precipitation in the monsoon season (June-Sept) is likely to be in the upper side of the “normal” range (94-106%) of the LPA , IMD had stated.
The monsoon, after a delayed onset over Kerala coast in four years, has been in the “active” mode since the last two weeks. It covered the entire country on July 2, six days ahead of the normal date.
Last month, the government had hiked the minimum support prices (MSP) of the key kharif crops for 2023-24 season (July-June) by 6-10.4%, the highest increase since 2018-19. The MSP for paddy, the key kharif crop, is fixed at `2,183/quintal, up 7% on year.
India’s foodgrain production rose by 5% on year to a new record of 330.5 MT for the 2022-23 crop year, according to the agriculture ministry.