As sowing of kharif crops has crossed last five year’s average, the overall sown area is marginally above last year’s but concern over the excess rainfall in many pockets in western and southern regions could impact the crop yield reports FE. At 109.66 million hectare, kharif sowing of paddy, pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals, cotton and sugarcane was up 2.2% on year, according to data released by the agriculture ministry as on September 13.
Officials said the sowing especially pulses and paddy would continue till end of the month, agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had stated overall the impact of rains has been around 1 – 2% of total sown crops in the country while rains in the next couple of weeks would be critical to crop health.
