September weather holds the key to India’s kharif crop output

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The overall sowing under all crops in the current kharif season has reached 1,092.33 lakh hectares (lh) as of September 6. It is up by 2.2 per cent from 1,069.29 lh a year ago, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. The recent floods due to heavy rainfall in some States such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat have caused some damage to the crops that are yet to be estimated, potentially lowering the yield in some of the crops even if the acreage is more.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast above-normal rainfall in September and it will likely have an impact on the yield of crops.

Paddy sowing continues to be ahead of the year-ago level with 4 per cent increase reported at 409.50 lh as of September 30 against 393.57 lh in the year-ago period, the Ministry said, adding that with this the crop has been sown/transplanted on more than 100 per cent of its normal kharif area. “There was some technical error due to which the year-ago acreage data remained same for the week ended September 6. Probably in current week data, this will be reflected on September 13 and the paddy area is almost at par with the year-ago level,” an official source said. The acreage as of August 30, 2023 was also at 393.57 lh.

Soya, groundnut acreage up

On the other hand, pulses acreage has increased to 126.20 lh from 117.39 lh, up by 7.5 per cent and it includes coverage of arhar (pigeon pea) at 45.78 lh from 40.74 lh (same as the previous week), urad at 30.02 lh against 31.71 lh and moong at 35.06 lh from 31.05 lh, the Ministry said in a statement.

The oilseeds coverage is up 1.6 per cent at 192.40 lh so far this kharif season from 189.44 lh year-ago and it includes soyabean at 125.11 lh, up from 123.85 lh and groundnut at 47.49 lh, up from 43.39 lh. Industry officials said the sowing in soyabean has been completed and it is highly encouraging. “Unless there is very heavy rainfall, there may be a bumper harvest of soyabean,” an industry leader had said last week.

The Agriculture Ministry is likely to announce the first estimate of production of kharif crops later this month.

The area under maize and “Shree Anna” (nutri cereals) increased to 188.72 lh from 181.74 lh in the year-ago period. The area under maize has increased to 87.27 lh from 82.86 lh (no change from previous week), that of jowar to 15.18 lh from 14.08. But, bajra sowing continues to trail behind and has reached 69.81 lh against 70.84 lh in the year-ago period. There has been 23.6 per cent rise in area under ragi at 10.78 lh and 8.5 per cent rise at 5.68 lh under other small millets.

8% excess rainfall

The sowing in sugarcane has been completed and it has increased marginally to 57.68 lh from 57.11 lh a year ago. But, cotton acreage continues to be lower at 112.13 lh from 123.39 lh. Similarly, jute-mesta acreage too reported lower at 5.71 lh from 6.66 lh.

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country has received 817.9 mm of rain between June 1 and September 9, which is 8 per cent above its LPA of 760.6 mm.

At least 25, including 16 from western region, out of 155 major reservoirs are filled to capacity even as the level in the storage continued to increase for the 10th week in a row, data from the Central Water Commission (CWC) showed. The water level increased to 81 per cent of the 180.852 billion cubic metres (BCM) capacity at 147.337 BCM, according to CWC’s weekly bulletin on live storage status of major reservoirs in the country on September 5.