So far the rice acreage is lagging behind slightly at 36 million hectare in ongoing kharif season this year as against 36.40 million hectare in the year-ago, according to the reports compiled by the Agriculture Ministry. The Ministry highlighted that sowing acreage of most kharif crops remained down so far due to poor monsoon. Barring cotton, area planted to all other kharif (summer) crops is lower than the year-ago. The total area under all kharif crops remains lower at 98.65 million hectares as compared to 102 million hectares in the year-ago.
Sowing of most kharif crops, which began with the onset of southwest monsoon from June, has completed. Rice planting would continue till end of the month. Besides rice, area sown to pulses remains lower at 9.72 million hectare as compared with 10.36 million hectares in the same period last season.
Similarly, acreage under oilseeds is lagging behind at 17.34 million hectares from 18.89 million hectares, while area under coarse cereals is down at 17.47 million hectares from 19.23 million hectares in the review period.
Among cash crops, area under sugarcane coverage is lower at 4.87 million hectares as against 5.03 million hectare in the year-ago. Jute acreage is also down marginally at 8.13 lakh hectare from 8.31 lakh hectares. However cotton area is slightly increased to 12.37 million hectares from 11.31 million hectares in the same period.