Soyabean, whose prices are trading higher than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the government, has emerged a favourite of farmers in Central India this kharif.

Area under soyabean is up by 11 per cent at 93.87 lakh hectares (lh) as on July 20 as compared to the corresponding period last year. Spot soyabean prices at Indore hovers at ₹3,576/quintal higher than the MSP of ₹3,399 for kharif 2018-19.

Groundnut suffers

However, groundnut — another major kharif oilseed crop — reported a 21 per cent drop in cultivation, mainly on poor sowing in Gujarat, the largest producer.

So far, total kharif planting has taken place over 631 lh as against 696 lh covered in the corresponding week in the previous season, data released by the Agriculture Ministry showed on Friday.

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Rice, too, down

Among the worst-hit crops seemed to be pulses and rice, whose acreage is 18 and 12 per cent lower respectively than last year.

The shortfall in rice cultivation was mainly on account of paucity of rainfall in two major rice-growing States – Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

While 64 out of 72 districts in UP have so far recorded deficient or large deficient rainfall, the precipitation was at least 20 per cent less than the normal in 33 out of 38 districts in Bihar till date.

Cotton, which received a better MSP this year, is fast making up for deficit in previous weeks, but is still 11 per cent lower in acreage than same period last year mainly because of inclement weather in Gujarat where the area covered under cotton was 4.35 lh.

Acreage of coarse cereals cultivation too is down 11 per cent to 119 lh as compared to 133 lh in the same week last year.

The cumulative shortfall in kharif sowing lingers around 9 per cent compared to the same period last year. However, with monsoon intensifying there is some good news on water storage front.

Storage levels up

According to the Central Water Commission data, water levels in 91 major reservoirs in the country stood at 52.36 billion cubic metre (BCM) – 32 per cent of total capacity – on Thursday as against 41.79 BCM during the same week last year.

The improvement in water storage is on account of better reservoir levels in south India where the recorded storage level was 48 per cent as against 16 per cent in the previous year.

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