Briefing about kharif crops sowing scenario, the Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna has said that rice sowing has declined by 10% to 14.4 million hectares so far this year and simultaneously monsoon across the country is short by 22% this week as well. The states like Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat have experienced deficit rains. As good rains are expected next week, the Agriculture Secretary is anticipating that the shortfall in area would be covered even though sowing is down by 10%.
However, the Agriculture Secretary has voiced his concern that crop productivity could be affected if sowing is delayed by more than a month. Besides, the government has initiated contingency plans in Karnataka and Maharashtra states as the situation is worrisome but will wait till July-end to press for contingency plan at Saurashtra in Gujarat and Western Rajasthan.
The Agriculture Secretary added that the situation of cotton has worsened as area under the cotton is down and not up to the mark. Due to poor monsoon cotton in Saurashtra region of Gujarat is taking a hit. In the ongoing Kharif season cotton sowing has dipped to 8.37 million hectares so far compared to 9.24 million hectares in the year-ago period, as per the data released by Agriculture Secretary.
Meanwhile, in foodgrains category, rice sowing has declined to 14.45 million hectares from 16.1 million hectares while coarse cereals area fell to 9.54 million hectares from 12.6 million hectares in the reviewed period. Similarly, compared to 5.85 million hectares, pulses area declined to 4.01 million hectares while oilseeds area too fell to 10.9 million hectares from 12.1 million hectares.
On the other hand, compared to 5.07 million hectares in the year-ago period sugarcane area has improved to 5.3 million hectares so far this Kharif. Further, the area under all the monsoon-sown crops stood at 53.4 million hectares from a year earlier, a decline by 14%. In the 2011-12 crop year (July-June) period, on account of good monsoon, the country harvested a record 257.44 million tonnes of foodgrains.
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