The area under paddy continues to be higher than the year-ago level with a normal to above normal rainfall in key growing States during September likely to contain any drop in production.

With coverage of over 14 lakh hectares (lh) during past week, the paddy acreage in the ongoing kharif season is 398.08 lh as of September 1 against 383.79 lh a year ago, up 4 per cent, according to the weekly update released by the Agriculture Ministry. Though the monsoon was deficient in most parts of the country, the eastern parts, a key rice producing region, received surplus rainfall.

Normal Sept rains

The India Meteorological Department has predicted normal to above normal rain this month in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, northern Madhya Pradesh, northern Chhattisgarh, northern Andhra Pradesh, south Telangana, north and south interior Karnataka and north Tamil Nadu.

Below-normal rainfall has been predicted for Punjab and Haryana, but it may not impact paddy as it is cultivated totally in irrigated areas and the reservoir position is also comfortable. The water level in 10 reservoirs of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan was 16.239 billion cubic meters (BCM) as of August 31, which is 83 per cent of the storage capacity and up from 10-year average of 79 per cent of the capacity during the period.

Overall, the acreage of all kharif crops has reached 98.7 per cent of the normal area of 1,091.73 lh - up by 0.4 per cent from a year ago. The area under all kharif crops has reached 1,077.82 lh as of Friday, up from 1,073.22 lh a year ago.

Cotton too down

The area under arhar (pigeon pea), moong (green gram) and urad (black matpe) is lower this year due to a shift towards cotton and soyabean in many States. The total area under pulses has declined by 8.8 per cent to 105.32 lh from 115.49 lh. Moong was covered in 30.98 lh (-7.7 per cent), urad in 31.68 lh (-13.6 per cent) and arhar in 42.66 lh (-5.8 per cent).

The oilseeds acreage declined by 1 per cent to 190.11 lh, down from 191.91 lh a year ago. The soyabean acreage was at 125.13 lh, up by 1 per cent from 123.91 lh a year ago. The area under groundnut continues to slide from a year ago. It has currently been pegged at 43.37 lh against 45 lh, down by 3.6 per cent. Its sowing is nearly over. The area under castor is up by 17.5 per cent at 8.53 lh from 7.26 lh as it is mainly grown in Gujarat, where the rainfall deficiency in August was 90 per cent.

Kharif coverage of cotton is down by 2.1 per cent to 122.99 lh from 125.63 lh in the year-ago period. But among cash crops, the sugarcane coverage is up by 7.7 per cent at 59.91 lh from 55.65 lh.

The area under coarse and nutri-cereals has increased by 1.1 per cent to 181.06 lh from 179.13 lh after farmers increased planting under bajra, ragi and maize. The bajra acreage was 70.81 lh against 70.41 lh and that of maize is up by 2.7 per cent at 82.86 lh against 80.66 lh. The jowar acreage has declined by 9.7 per cent to 14.06 lh from 15.57 lh and ragi coverage up by 5.2 per cent at 8.13 lh against 7.73 lh.

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