NEW DELHI: Crop planting for the kharif, or summer-sown season, has jumped 40% year-on-year, helped by the strong start of the monsoon season. The surge in planting has been led by oilseeds and coarse cereals. Rainfall since June 1 has been 31% higher than that a year ago, giving a big boost to crop planting.
Total area under cultivation has risen to 13.13 million hectares so far, from 9.42 million hectares a year ago.
“The sharp increase is due to sowing of oilseeds, particularly groundnut, which has been sown in a large area of Gujarat, where monsoon has reached at least 10 days prior to the schedule. Total oilseeds area during this period is almost eight times more than that last year,” said a senior agriculture department official, who did not wish to be identified. He said the area under coarse cereals has gone up 144% over that last year.
The timely arrival and rapid spread of the monsoon along with good pre-monsoon showers in the north accelerated sowing, said officials.
“However, the area of rice is showing a slight dip this week from last year while area under pulses has gone up. We have not received complete sowing data from Punjab. The actual area of rice then may be higher than reported this week,” said a second official.
The area under cotton has seen a steep rise of 58% owing to an increase in minimum support price (MSP) by ₹260-275 per quintal. The increase in area is also due to diversion from rice to cotton in Punjab, where farmers are opting for less labour intensive cotton cultivation to rice plantation.
“While Gujarat has seen a decline in area under cotton, there is a steep rise in Punjab and Rajasthan,” said the official.
The government is expecting another bumper crop this year.
Source: indiatimes.com