Paddy area up, but less pulses sowing pulls down overall kharif acreage

The momentum in paddy transplanting continues as acreage under the crop is higher by 2 per cent at 237.58 lakh hectares (lh) as of Friday against 233.25 lh year-ago.

However, due to lower area under some pulses, groundnut, and cotton, the overall acreage under all kharif crops reported a tad lower at 799.70 lh (800.55 lh).

As much as 57 lh under paddy got covered during past week same as was added in its previous week.

Higher area under paddy has been reported from Madhya Pradesh (by 2.08 lh), Bihar (0.39 lh), Uttar Pradesh (3.77 lh), Telangana (1.83 lh), and West Bengal (0.85 lh). Acreage in Haryana, and Chhattisgarh, which were trailing until last week, has also gone up. But paddy sowing in Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh is lower.

Pulses off the boil

Total acreage under all pulses has declined 11.3 per cent at 96.84 lh. Area under arhar witnessed the maximum drop by 16 per cent at 31.51 lh as farmers in key producing States faced delayed rain. Moong has recorded a 7.2 per cent fall to 27.64 lh, while urad area declined by 14.1 per cent to 25.83 lh.

Acreage of coarse cereals has increased by 1.6 per cent to 145.76 lh from 143.48 lh. Maize area, too, is up at 69.36 lh against 68.94 lh year-ago. The gain in bajra acreage initially, by over 40 per cent, has narrowed down to 4.3 per cent at 60.60 lh, while that of jowar was a tad higher at 10.58 lh (10.56 lh).

Cotton acreage reached 116.75 lh until Friday, against 117.91 lh year-ago, while sugarcane sowing has been completed and is now up 5 per cent at 56 lh from 53.34 lh last year.

Oilseeds sowing was higher by 2 per cent at 171.02 lh (167.61 lh). Soyabean acreage is reported to have increased by 3.7 per cent to 119.91 lh and groundnut was down by 2.6 per cent to 37.58 lh. Due to delayed rainfall in Karnataka, sunflower sowing seems to have taken a hit and only 56,000 hectare has been covered pan- India — down from 1.64 lh.