As the deficiency in monsoon declined, planting of kharif crops across the country picked up momentum.

So far, 848 lakh hectares (lh) have been covered against 890 lh sown in the same period a year ago, data released by Agriculture Ministry on Friday showed.

Tardy progress in rice

Rice has been planted on 265 lh — four per cent lower than around 276 lh sown in the same week previous season.

Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal reported subdued planting, while Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana covered more area. At around 108 lh, the area under pulses is about three per cent lower than the corresponding week last year, but arhar (pigeon pea) acreage is in positive territory with a four per cent increase over last year.

Acreages of moong and urad are down by nearly 10 per cent compared with the same period last year. The oilseeds area continues to lag by six per cent and only 164 lh has been covered so far. The area of groundnut is about 10 per cent down, while the shortfall in soyabean planting came down to three per cent.

While oilseeds planting gathered pace in Rajasthan, that in Madhya Pradesh is still down by 10 per cent compared with the same week last year.

At 111 lh, area under cotton is still lower by nine per cent than the corresponding period last year.

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Storage levels up

The country as a whole received 416.6 mm of rainfall till Wednesday, which is two per cent lower than the normal of 424.1 mm.

The rains have helped improve water storage levels in 130 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission.

As on Thursday, these water bodies have a total of 85.36 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water which is significantly better than 70.77 BCM in the corresponding week a year ago.

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