Kharif area up, but rains hit standing crops in 15 states

Timely and quick spread of monsoon this year did help boost the kharif acreage, but the heavy spell of rains witnessed across several parts of the country over recent weeks are seen spoiling the party for several farmers this cropping season.

“There have been extreme weather events in the form of heavy rains in some parts of the country which affected the standing crops,” said Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed the Parliament on Friday.

Standing crops hit

Standing seasonal crops such as paddy, maize, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables among others have been impacted on over 21 lakh ha across 15 States, according to the Agriculture Minister.

States such as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which faced heavy rains and flooding in several regions, have not yet quantified the crop losses.

Cumulative rainfall for the country, as a whole, till date is 7 per cent more, according to IMD. About 9 per cent of the districts have received large excess rains, while 21 per cent have received excess precipitation.

State-wise details

As per the details submitted by the minister in a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Bihar topped the list of the States where crop damages have been reported, followed by Karnataka and Odisha.

In Bihar, standing crops such as paddy, maize, fruits and vegetables have been impacted on over 9.22 lakh ha.

Karnataka has reported crop losses on about 3.31 lakh ha; paddy, red gram, green gram cotton, ragi, bajra, millets and soyabean have been impacted by excess rains.

Odisha has reported losses in paddy and horticulture crops on 2.21 lakh ha, while about 1.7 lakh ha have been damaged in Maharasthra, where cotton, jowar and turmeric among other crops are affected. In Telangana, kharif crops have been impacted on 1.43 lakh hectares. In Andhra Pradesh, crops such as banana, onion, tomato grown on 52,000 hectares have suffered damage.

In Punjab, about 24,403 hectares with crops such as cotton and paddy have been damaged, while Tamil Nadu has reported losses on 787 hectares affecting paddy, maize and gingelly among others. Kerala has reported crop losses on 4,754 hectares, while Arunachal Pradesh has suffered crop damage on 6,864 hectares.

In Madhya Pradesh, soyabean, maize, arhar, urad, moong and paddy have suffered damage. Earlier, the soyabean trade had projected a crop loss of 10-12 per cent in the State due to heavy rains this year.

The Gujarat government has reported that crops in 14 districts have been affected but did not provide details of the area.

“For undertaking relief measures, funds are available with the State Government in the form of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), Additional financial assistance, over and above SDRF, is considered from National Disaster Response Fund for natural calamities of severe nature and is approved on the basis of Memorandum received from State Government, in accordance with established procedure,” Tomar said.

Kharif acreage rises

Paddy acreage continued to rise in Bihar, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as transplantation of the main cereal crop for the kharif season has entered the last phase. Total acreage under paddy moved up to 406.97 lakh ha — an increase from the previous week’s 402.25 lakh ha.

Total kharif acreage so far stood at 1,113.63 lakh ha, which is an increase of 5.71 per cent over corresponding last year’s 1,053.52 lakh ha. Timely arrival of monsoon coupled with availability of agri-inputs helped farmers plant more area beating the Covid-19 and lockdown blues.