As the monsoon continues to be deficient in most parts of India, sowing of major kharif crops remained below normal till July 20.
However, good news was that there was significant progress in sowing of most crops last week compared with sowing the week before.
Data from the agriculture ministry show the area under rice increased by 49.3 per cent; coarse cereals by 140 per cent; pulses by 97 per cent; oilseeds by 60.2 per cent and cotton by 29.3 per cent on a week-on-week basis.
“This is a significant increase, as sowing till date has been largely below normal,” Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna told reporters on Saturday after holding a meeting of top officials from six states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana — that are most vulnerable to the adverse impact of low rains.
Crop-wise, the data showed, there was less acreage of paddy by around six per cent; coarse cereals 24.3 per cent; pulses 22.3 per cent; oilseeds 0.68 per cent and cotton 3.50 per cent till last week as against normal area, which is the average of sowing in the same period in the last 10 years.
However, acreage of sugarcane was 12.40 per cent more.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its last monsoon forecast said rains would revive in most parts of India from the middle of next week. Bahuguna said: “The next week to 10 days would be crucial for areas where large tracts of land are still not sown due to deficient rains and we would constantly review the situation.”
Till Saturday, the southwest monsoon has been around 22 per cent deficient. In July, rainfall deficiency in the country has come down from 31 per cent in June to 15 per cent below normal.
India suffered its worst drought in three decades in 2009, when the overall rainfall across the country was around 23 per cent below normal, pushing up prices of vegetables and pulses.
The southwest monsoon is crucial to Indian agriculture as around 55 per cent of total arable land in the country does not have adequate irrigation.
In Punjab and Haryana, though the situation is not very acute, a steep drop in reservoirs levels could have a direct bearing on rabi sowing as well.
| KHARIF SOWING (in million hectares) | |||||
| Crop | Acreage till July 20 | Acreage a week before | % chg over last week | Normal area* | % chg over normal area |
| Rice | 14.5 | 9.7 | 49.3 | 15.3 | -5.7 |
| Coarse cereals | 9.5 | 4.0 | 140 | 12.6 | -24.3 |
| Pulses | 4.0 | 2.1 | 97.0 | 5.2 | -22.3 |
| Oilseeds | 10.9 | 6.8 | 60.2 | 11.0 | -0.7 |
| Sugarcane | 5.3 | 5.3 |
Nil | ||
Data from the Central Water Commission showed that of the six major reservoirs in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, water levels in five are below 40 per cent.
In Maharashtra, of the 22 reservoirs, 18 have water levels below 40 per cent. In Karnataka, water levels in reservoirs are around 66 per cent below normal as on July 19.
