Sowing under kharif crops has gained further momentum with over half of the country’s normal area of 1,096 lakh hectares (lh) getting completed by July 12. The coverage is also up by more than 10 per cent, latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare show.

Overall, the kharif acreage has reached 570.23 lh compared with 513.27 lh in the same period a year ago, data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare showed. The acreage under paddy, the key cereal crop, has jumped 20.7 per cent to 115.64 lh as on July 12 from 95.8 lh a year ago. As much as about 55 lh got covered under paddy during past week, the data showed.

Soyabean coverage has risen 31.1 per cent to 108.1 lh from 82.44 lh, helping oilseeds acreage to jump 22 per cent to 140.02 lh from 114.63 lh a year ago. On the other hand, groundnut acreage, which was trailing so far, is now a tad lower at 28.2 lh from 28.3 lh.

Arhar area zooms

The total area under cotton is 95.79 lh until July 12 against 93.02 lh a year ago, up by 3 per cent. There are reports of some cotton farmers of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana shifting to other crops such as paddy and maize. The area under maize has been higher at 58.9 lh, up by 34.3 per cent from 43.8 lh.

The sowing area under arhar (pigeon pea/tur) has reached 28.1 lh, which is nearly three times more than the acreage reported a year ago, thanks to the open market price signal that farmers have picked up to expand the area under the crop. Currently, arhar dal is selling at ₹175-230/kg in retail markets of the national capital region of Delhi.

Urad acreage too is up 9 per cent at 13.9 lh from 12.8 lh. But, moong acreage continues to lag behind and is now 15.8 lh, down 19.3 per cent from 19.6 lh. Overall, sowing of all pulses has reached 57.8 lh, which is 25.9 per cent higher than nearly 42 lh year-ago.

Sugarcane acreage, too, has increased a tad to 57.7 lh from 56.9 lh. But area under jute and mesta is down at 5.6 lh from 6 lh.

Shree Anna coverage recovers

On the other hand, area under Shree Anna (nutri cereals) has recovered a lot in the past week as its area has now reached 97.6 lh as against 58.5 lh until July 5, thanks to improvement in bajra sowing. However, all Shree Annas together are still 7 per cent lower from 105 lh year-ago. Bajra area has reached 28.3 lh as against 50.1 lh year-ago.

Early setting in of the monsoon on May 30 and coverage of the entire country six days earlier than its normal schedule have helped the higher coverage. Last year, the south-west monsoon got impacted with the emergence of El Nino and resulted in below-average rainfall in the June-September season.

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