With poor rains in some states, the agriculture ministry in its latest data has showed that area under the paddy crop stood at 383.99 lakh hectare in the ongoing kharif season so far, down 5.62 per cent as compared to paddy sown in 406.89 lakh hectares in the year-ago period. Paddy is the main kharif crop and its sowing begins with the onset of the southwest monsoon from June and harvesting from October onwards.
There was a huge lag in paddy sowing in the states of Jharkhand (9.80 lakh hectare), Madhya Pradesh (6.32 lakh hectare), West Bengal (4.45 lakh hectare), Chhattisgarh (3.91 lakh hectare), Uttar Pradesh (2.61 lakh hectare), and Bihar (2.18 lakh hectare) so far this kharif season. The lag in paddy sowing was not significant in states of Odisha (0.84 lakh ha), Andhra Pradesh (0.31 lakh ha), Assam (0.29 lakh ha), Meghalaya (0.21 lakh ha), Punjab (0.12 lakh ha), Jammu and Kashmir (0.05 lakh ha), Mizoram (0.03 lakh ha), Sikkim (0.02 lakh ha) and Tripura (0.01 lakh ha) in the said period.
Besides paddy, there was marginal decline in coverage of pulses with 129.55 lakh hectare covered so far this kharif season against 135.46 lakh hectare in the year-ago period. Tur/arhar area was down marginally at 44.86 lakh ha as against 47.56 lakh hectare, while that of urad acreage was lagging slightly at 36.62 lakh hectare as against 38.18 lakh ha in the comparable period. Oilseeds coverage too was lagging behind as the area coverage was down marginally at 188.51 lakh hectare till September 2 of this kharif season as against 189.66 lakh ha in the year-ago period. However in case of coarse-cum-nutri cereals, the sowing was slightly up at 178.96 lakh hectare as against 171.62 lakh hectare in the said period.
Among cash crops, cotton acreage remained up at 125.69 lakh hectare, and sugarcane area was slightly higher at 55.65 lakh hectare from over the year-ago period. Jute/mesta area remained flat at 6.95 lakh hectare so far in the ongoing kharif season. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the country has received 6 per cent higher southwest monsoon rains during June-August period. However east and north eastern parts of the country have reported 19 per cent deficient rainfall in the same period. It added monthly rainfall during September over the country as a whole is most likely to be above normal.
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