Kharif acreage continues to trail despite surge in monsoon

The revival in monsoon reduced the rain deficit further to 7 per cent as on September 14, but the shortfall in kharif acreage persisted.

The total kharif area is lower by 55.62 lakh hectares (lh) over last year, though the crop sowing data continued to trickle in as reports from the interior areas continued to pour. The acreage deficit has largely been reduced in case of pulses, oilseeds and cotton, but the gap has widened in rice and coarse cereals over the previous week.

Rice acreage stood at 361.64 lh (379.01 lh) and States such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Maharashtra have reported higher areas. Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have seen a drop in acreage. The standing rice crop has largely been reported normal and satisfactory.

In case of coarse cereals, the shortfall in acreage was mainly observed in sorghum at 2 lh over last year, bajra (19 lh), ragi (1.3 lh), while the area under maize and small millets was largely on par with last year.

Among pulses, the shortfall was mainly seen in tur (1.5 lh) and moong (3.08 lh), while urad registered an increase of 1.93 lh at 23.77 lh.

Oilseed acreage

The area under oilseeds, such as soyabean, was up by 3.77 lh at 107.003 lh over last year. The higher acreage was mainly due to more area in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However, the area under groundnut was down 4.75 lh at 38.11 lh, mainly on account of dry spells affecting the sowing in Saurashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.

The acreage under sunflower has been marginally lower at 2.29 lh and in case of nigerseed the area has been higher at 1.91 lh. In case of sesamum, the acreage is marginally lower at 13.3 lh over last year’s 14.81 lh.

The area under cotton was lower by 5.6 lh at 114 lh mainly because of less coverage in Gujarat.