With the monsoon rains continuing to play truant in Karnataka, sowing of major kharif crops has suffered a setback.
The state government had set a target of 7.47 million hectares for sowing of kharif crops this year, which is almost the same as last year.
Between June 1 and July 8, the state received 164 mm of rainfall, 39 per cent lower than the normal of 268 mm for the period. This is classified as deficient. Rainfall is scanty or deficient in 28 of the 30 districts.
As against the normal area of 2.45 million hectares as on June 30, the actual area sown for all crops was 1.59 million hectares, just 65 per cent of the normal area for the first month of the kharif season. This is 14 per cent less than the area sown last year.
As of June 30, 2011, sowing was completed in 1.84 million hectares, according to data compiled by the department of agriculture.
This year, as of June 30, the sowing for foodgrain was completed in 797,000 hectares, just 53 per cent of the normal area coverage for the period. Compared to the same period last year, sowing was lower by 20 per cent. In June 2011, sowing for foodgrain was completed in 994,000 hectares.
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Sowing for cereals was completed in just about 43 per cent of the normal area of one million hectares and pulses, coverage was about 72 per cent of the normal area of 513,000 hectares. The coverage of oilseeds is poor this year at 37 per cent of the normal coverage at 198,000 hectares. The normal coverage for June is 541,000 hectares.
However, sowing of cash crops is better than the normal area this year. As against the normal area of 402,000 hectares, sowing was completed in 600,000 hectares, which is one-and-a-half times normal coverage.
Among the cereals, sowing was comparatively better for rice, jowar and maize, while sowing for bajra, ragi and minor millets was below normal. Among pulses, sowing was better than normal for tur, blackgram, cowpea and others, while sowing for horsegram, greengram and avare were below normal. Among oilseeds, except soybean and sesamum, sowing was far below normal levels for all others.
As far as cash crops are concerned, sowing was outstanding for cotton and sugarcane in June. Sugarcane has been planted in an area of 377,000 hectares, 2.1 times more than the normal area for June. Cotton has been sown on 152,000 hectares as against the normal coverage of 145,000 hectares, which is 104 per cent over the normal area for the month.
According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, during the first week of July, 46.8 per cent of the total geographical area covering parts of the districts of Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Chamarajanagara, Mysore, Mandya, Bellary, Koppala, Raichur, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Gadag, Chikkamagalur and Yadgir experienced moderate to severe rainfall deficiency for agricultural crops.