India’s kharif sowing activities yet to gather momentum

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A day after the onset of the monsoon over Kerala, sowing data collected from the Ministry of Agriculture from across the country shows that planting activities are yet to gain momentum in most states. However, the pace of cultivation is likely to improve in the next two weeks as the monsoon is set to hit the main northwest region, which is considered the food bowl of India, a week earlier than usual.

Official sources said the total area sown with kharif crops increased by 1 percent to 78.34 lakh hectares as of June 9 compared to 77.58 lakh hectares in the same period last year. Except for sugarcane, cotton, maize and bagra, most of the major crops recorded a decrease in land area.

The area of ​​rice, the main autumn grain, decreased by 28 percent at 3.52 liters, while all pulses combined recorded a decrease of 38 percent at 1.09 liters, and the area of ​​oilseeds decreased by 33 percent at 78 thousand hectares. However, the feeder and coarse grain sowing area recorded an 80 per cent increase at 5.41 liters due to the increase in the cultivation of maize, bagra and jowar. Sugarcane area increased by 1 percent at 47.49 litres.

Cotton growers are taking the lead

Among the pulses, tor was sown on 0.17 L, mung on 0.23 L and urad on 0.22 L as of June 9. In coarse grains, the area of ​​maize was 2.21 litres, bagra 2.39 litres, and jowar 0.17 litres.

Cotton growers took the lead this year, with 14.32 litres, up 9 per cent, while jute and mista recorded a 12 per cent drop at 5.73 litres.

Meanwhile, the rainfall deficit in the current monsoon season (June-September) widened to 62 percent as of June 9 from 60 percent till June 8 as the shortfall reached 73 percent on Friday. Kerala, where the monsoon arrived first, saw 6.1 mm of precipitation on Friday as against 19 mm considered normal for the day.

Data released by the Central Water Commission showed that the storage level in the country’s 146 major reservoirs was 28 percent of the total live storage capacity of 178.185 billion cubic metres. This was 6 percentage points lower than the same period last year.