As the South-West monsoon covers the entire country 12 days prior to normal date, farmers planted a whopping 315.63 lakh hectares (lh), more than double of the 154.53 lh covered in the corresponding week last year, according to kharif sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday.
Highest increase was recorded in oilseeds and pulses planting. While the area under oilseeds increased to 83.31 lh, more than five times than 13.32 lh covered in the same week in the previous season, the pulses acreage more than tripled to 19.40 lh in the same period.
Among oilseeds, at 63.26 lh, soyabean registered a 23-fold increase in area against 2.66 lh planted in the corresponding week last year. And the area under arhar is 9.87 lh, which is five times more than the acreage reported in the same period. Even the area under groundnut, too, almost doubled to 18.45 lh as compared the same week last year. While much of the increase in oilseeds area was from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra accounted for most of the increase in pulses cultivation.
Similarly, there is a substantial increase in cotton planting as well. As compared to 27 lh planted in the corresponding week last year, the area under the fibre went up by 165 per cent to 71.69 lh till end of the current week.
Triple digit growth in both maize and bajra area helped increase the coarse cereals acreage to 47.96 lh (24.48 lh). Both Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are responsible for the increase.
The area under rice planting went up by nearly 10 lh to 37.71 lh in the current week.