India’s paddy, pulses, oilseeds coverage lags behind as kharif sowing begins

Posted on by

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture showed that the cultivation of rice, legumes and oilseeds declined with the increase in the activity of planting autumn crops, while the area cultivated with sugar cane, cotton and coarse grains increased until Friday.

Heavy rains in May aided the sowing activities this fall. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), rainfall has been 10 percent higher than the long-term average based on 1971-2020 data. The IMD said rainfall was 67.3mm, the third highest since 1901, while the other two were 95mm in 1987 and 68.2mm in 2021.

Arad district

Rice was cultivated on an area of ​​2.17 thousand hectares, compared to 2.96 liters during the same period last year. So far, the highest coverage has been reported from Nagaland followed by Assam and West Bengal. Sowing operations have yet to start in Punjab, Haryana, Telangana and other major states.

Pulses coverage decreased to 0.87 liters compared to 0.91 liters in the previous year. Of this, Karnataka accounted for 0.63 liters per hour with Uttar Pradesh accounting for another 0.14 litres.

The sowing of arahar (pigeon peas) and urad (black matt) seems to be increasing in view of the prevailing higher prices, while the sub-moon and other pulses are lagging behind.

sesame clouds

Oilseeds were down at 0.53 liters versus 0.56 liters last year, with sesame the main draw (0.08 liters versus 0.13 liters). Soybean and peanut coverage appears to be gaining, while sunflower coverage lags.

Karnataka (0.26 litres) and Nagaland (0.19 litres) are the states that have taken the lead in sowing oilseeds with farmers in other major states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan expected to start mulching once the monsoon season arrives.

IMD said the southwest monsoon will be delayed this year and could start after June 4. Currently, the monsoon is over Sri Lanka and it has hit Minikwi in Lakshadweep.

Encouraging factors

Corn and bagra lead fall’s coarse-grain coverage, which is 1.5 liters versus last year’s 1.3 liters. Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are the three states that have contributed a lot to the advancement in sowing so far.

Coverage of sugarcane and cotton, as expected, is higher this year. The encouragement to the farmers to plant more sugarcane comes from the sugar mills to clear the dues for the supply of sugarcane on time. So far, sugarcane has been grown at 46.98 liters compared to 46.67 liters last year.

Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra lead in coverage, making up nearly three-quarters of the area sown to date.

Cotton growers have taken solace from prices well above the minimum support prices in the past two seasons. Natural fiber crop coverage increased to 13.43 lh compared to 10.78 lh a year earlier.

Not less than 12.5 liters of cotton sown area is roughly made by Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab.

Less storage on an annual basis

According to IMD, northwest India—key to producing the kharif crops—received 94 percent of the extra rain in May, while central India, another key region, received 64 percent more rain.

As a result of increased precipitation, the total live storage in the 146 main reservoirs was 178.185 BCM or 69.11 percent of the total capacity of 257.812 BCM. Storage is 6 percentage points lower than the same time last year but 21 percentage points higher than the average for the past 10 years.