As the southwest monsoon showed signs of revival over parts of western and central India, sowing of cotton, oilseeds and pulses picked up pace, narrowing the difference between the area covered this year as compared to the previous year.
The gap between cotton sowing area this year and last year narrowed to just 3.66 per cent during the week ending July 22. The difference was 30.24 per cent till the week ending July 17. Sowing of cotton has been completed in 9.7 million hectares till last week, almost 87 per cent of the normal area under cotton.
In Gujarat and Maharashtra, which together account for over 80 per cent of the cotton grown in the country, more area was brought under the crop during the week after rains intensified. Data from the India Meteorological Department show that during the week, Gujarat received two per cent above normal rains.
| RAINFALL DURING JULY 7-20, 2011 | |||
| Regions | Actual rainfall* | Normal rainfall* | % Change |
| Northwest | 51.8 | 55.2 | -6 |
| Central | 93.0 | 77.1 | +21 |
| South | 60.3 | 48.3 | +25 |
| East & Northeast | 86.9 | 97.4 | -11 |
| Overall Country | 72.9 | 67.9 | +7 |
| *In Millimetres SOURCE: India Meteorological Department | |||
In Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra, rains were almost 42 per cent and 88 per cent above normal respectively last week. Similarly, for pulses, the difference in area covered last year as compared to this year which was almost 16 per cent till last week, has now almost halved to 8.33 per cent.
Pulses are largely grown in western, central and southern parts of the country, which received good rainfall during the week. In central India, monsoon rains were almost 21 per cent above normal during the week. In southern peninsula, which comprises Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, rains were 25 per cent above during the week which ended on July 20.
The rains also helped in intensifying sowing of oilseeds, bringing down the difference in acreage between 2010 and 2011 to only 0.55 per cent at 13.04 million hectares from 3.55 per cent.
“We are quite hopeful that as the southwest monsoon become vigorous in more areas, sowing will further pick up pace and we will further manage to close in the gap between this year and last year more,” a senior agriculture ministry official said. However, less-than-normal rains during the first half of July in western parts of the country are taking a toll on sowing of coarse cereals.
Till Friday, coarse cereals were sown in around 14.14 million hectares, down 11.46 per cent from the same period last year. The worst sufferer is maize. The area covered under this crop this year is at 4.99 million hectares, 550,000 hectares less as compared to the same period last year.
Acreage under paddy (de-husked rice), is almost the same as last year at 15.47 million hectares till Friday. Area under sugarcane is 270,000 hectares more this year at 5.16 million hectares.
The revival southwest monsoon has also pulled up the water levels in 81 major reservoirs across the country, to 52.52 billion cubic meters (BCM), up from 45.71 BCM till the previous week.
