Deficient rains unlikely to impact kharif paddy acreage, say rice exporters

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Rice exporters said the late arrival of the monsoon and the delayed advance in the country’s main rice-producing regions amid developing El Nino conditions are unlikely to have any significant impact on the areas under rice cultivation during this year’s Khareef season. Rice is the main grain crop of the fall season and the area of ​​rice on July 7 reached 54.12 lakh hectares (lh), down 24 percent from 71.10 lakh hectares (lh) a year earlier.

P. V. Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, said the rainfall was just beginning to pick up. “In June, we didn’t have good rains in the south while heavy rains in the northwest, so the crop will be good this time. It’s still early days in the south. This week, we’ve had good rain. Agriculture has started in some areas under irrigation canals like basin Godavari, while it has not yet begun under the Krishna and Tungabhadra Basin. The sowing of rice will continue till August 15. The total area across the country may be plus or minus 5 percent.”

The normal area sown for rice for the autumn planting season across the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, is 397.06 litres, with Uttar Pradesh having the largest at over 57.6 litres, followed by West Bengal at over 41.6 litres, and Chhattisgarh at 31.31 litres.

In the 2022 fall crop season, more than 403 liters of rice were grown. Due to the lack of rain in the eastern parts of the country last year, the rice-growing region of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar experienced shortages. However, large areas in Telangana and Madhya Pradesh helped offset the impact.

cumulative deficit

This year, although the southwest monsoon has covered the entire country from July 2, progress has been spotty. Although rainfall has been picking up late, large parts of the country are still facing deficits on a cumulative basis. The cumulative deficit in the ongoing monsoon season (June 1 to July 7) according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), is 26 per cent in Bihar, 37 per cent in Jharkhand, 25 per cent in Odisha and 36 per cent in Telangana, with 27 percent each in Maharashtra and Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh with 19 percent, and West Bengal with 11 percent.

However, UP and MP have excess rainfall of 8 percent each, while Punjab has excess rainfall of 48 percent and Haryana of 20 percent. Rajasthan has 136 percent excess rainfall, while Gujarat has 102 percent excess for the season and Tamil Nadu has 13 percent.

The World Meteorological Organization said earlier this week that El Nino conditions developed in the tropical Pacific Ocean for the first time in seven years and were likely to be of moderate strength.