Indian paddy coverage up 4% year-on-year as overall kharif acreage gains

The overall acreage of kharif crops has reached 94 per cent of the normal area of 1,091.73 lakh hectares (lh) as of Friday. It is higher by 1 lh from the year-ago period. While the area under paddy, nutri/coarse cereals and sugarcane area has increased, that of pulses, oilseeds and cotton is lower than the year-ago period.

Paddy coverage has been completed in 90 per cent of the normal area and it is 4 per cent more than the year-ago period. Recently, the government said it would decide on removing the ban on the export of white (raw) rice only after assessing the actual production, whichwill be done based on arrival and prices of paddy.

After a break for two weeks, the south-west monsoon is predicted to revive from here on and a likely western disturbance may help the north-west region to receive rains after the rainfall deficit reached 36 per cent in the first fortnight of this month.

Telangana, Bihar lead rice sowing

The government has fixed a target of 158.06 million tonnes (mt) of foodgrains production, including 111 mt of rice, 9.09 mt of pulses, 13.97 mt of Shree Anna (nutri cereals) and 24 mt of maize in the current kharif season. In kharif 2022, foodgrains production was 155.12 mt.

Paddy acreage reached 360.79 lh against 345.79 lh a year ago, according to the weekly update released by the Agriculture Ministry. Higher area has been reported from Telangana (by 4.42 lh), Bihar (4.15 lh), Chhattisgarh (2.71 lh), Jharkhand (2.24 lh), Haryana (1.64 lh), West Bengal (1.47 lh), Uttar Pradesh (1.28 lh), Punjab (0.40 lh) and Madhya Pradesh (0.32 lh). But the acreage is lower in Andhra Pradesh (1.53 lh), Karnataka (1.47 lh), Assam (0.61 lh) and Odisha (0.43 lh).

The total area under pulses declined by 9.2 per cent to 114.93 lh from 126.52 lh a year ago. Moong (green gram) was covered in 30.39 lh (-8.1 per cent), urad in 30.19 lh (-15.2 per cent) and arhar in 40.92 lh (-6.4 per cent). Other pulses (except kulthi) are down by 71,000 hectares.

M.P., Karnataka pull down pulses

Lower pulses acreage has been reported by Madhya Pradesh (3.59 lh), Karnataka (3.42 lh), Maharashtra (2.80 lh), Odisha (0.67 lh), Uttar Pradesh (0.51 lh), Andhra Pradesh (0.45 lh), Gujarat (0.41 lh), Telangana (0.37 lh). But higher area is reported by Rajasthan (1.36 lh) and West Bengal (0.02 lh).

Oilseeds acreage declined 1.7 per cent at 185.91 lh, down from 189.08 lh a year ago. Soyabean acreage was at 124.15 lh, up from 123.39 lh a year ago. The groundnut area continues to slide. It reached 42.77 lh against 44.48 lh a year ago. Sesamum acreage reached 11.52 lh, down from 12.56 lh, but castor was higher at 6.48 lh from 6 lh.

The area under coarse cereals and Shree Anna have increased 1.6 per cent to 176.39 lh from 173.6 lh mainly due to higher planting under ragi, bajra and maize. The bajra area has gone up by 1.1 per cent to 69.7 lh from 68.94 lh, ragi up by 17.7 per cent to 7.04 lh from 5.98 lh and that of maize by 2.3 per cent to 81.25 lh from 79.42 lh. But, jowar area has declined 7.3 per cent to 13.75 lh from 14.83 lh.

The cotton acreage was reported at 121.86 lh, down from 124.21 lh and jute and mesta too dropped to 6.56 lh from 6.95 lh. But sugarcane coverage was higher at 56.06 lh against 55.32 lh the year-ago period.