Even as the monsoon deficit has narrowed to 31 per cent of normal as on Friday from 47 per cent a week earlier, the progress of sowing has reported further decline as rainfall was mainly confined to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and some parts of east and north-east regions. Areas under cotton, which was higher from year-ago until last week, for the first time dipped as planting has been affected in Maharashtra due to deficient monsoon.

The total area under kharif-sown crops is down 4.5 per cent at 129.52 lakh hectares (lh) as of June 23, as against 135.64 lh in the corresponding period last year, official data on the agriculture ministry portal show.

Cereals up

Acreage of paddy, the main kharif cereal, is down 34.6 per cent at 10.77 lh, while all pulses combined reported 3.8 per cent higher at 6.54 lh and oilseeds acreage dropped by 3.3 per cent at 9.21 lh. The sowing area under nutri and coarse cereals, however, has been reported 37.9 per cent higher at 18.45 lh due to higher planting of bajra. Sugarcane acreage is a tad higher from year-ago and reached 50.76 lh. However, sources also said that there may be an upward revision on cane area to 56.76 lh if some data from States are found to be correct.

Among the pulses, tur has been sown in 0.62 lh until June 23 (against 1.8 lh year-ago), moong 3.83 lh (2.72 lh) and urad in 0.55 lh (0.79 lh). In the oilseeds category, groundnut sowing is reported in 7.68 lh (6.78 lh) and soyabean in 0.99 lh (1.55 lh). In coarse cereals, maize area reached 7.59 lh (9.78 lh), bajra 9.91 lh (2.26 lh) and jowar 0.31 lh (0.54 lh).

Cotton declines

Cotton acreage which took a lead this year, has declined 14.2 per cent to 28.02 lh from 32.67 lh as planting is down in Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka. But, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have reported higher acreage under cotton. Jute and mesta acreage reported a fall of 12.2 per cent at 5.77 lh.

Central Water Commission data showed the storage level in the 146 major reservoirs in the country was at 26 per cent of the total live storage capacity of 178.185 billion cubic metres (BCM) as on June 22. This was two percentage points lower than the same period a year ago, but higher than normal.

The sowing activities are set to pick up next week, particularly in those States where monsoon reached on Friday, officials said. Monsoon has covered more areas in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh on Friday, earlier than the official prediction.

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon over some more parts of south Peninsular India, remaining parts of Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar and some parts of Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh during next 2-3 days,” India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said June 22 . By June 25, monsoon normally covers all States except, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Even half of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat will also be covered by then.

Friday’s Bulletin showed, monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of Karnataka, Telangana, remaining parts of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha, some parts of Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and east Uttar Pradesh.

Releasing the outlook for next fortnight, IMD said conditions are also becoming favourable for further advancement of monsoon over some more parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana during next 3-4 days.

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