Kharif season sowing is expected to gather pace following the revival of the monsoon, though yield could be affected due to delayed sowing, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
“We expect crop output to increase by 2.5 per cent during FY09 as compared to the estimated growth of 5.8 per cent in the previous year,” CMIE said in its monthly review here.
By the first week of August, area sown under kharif crops was 76.1 million hectares, lagging behind by over 5 per cent from 80.3 million hectares that was covered in the same period of 2007.
However, the situation was not as grim as the data suggested. Acreage was likely to improve in the remaining weeks of August following the revival of monsoon in the southern peninsula in the last week of July, CMIE said.
In the northern states, sowing progressed at a fast pace since the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall remained quite favourable. This was reflected in the higher acreage of rice and soyabean by the first week of August.
However, crops like cotton, pulses and cereals other than rice saw slow progress in sowing as rainfall played truant for most of June and July in the states that grew these crops.
Till the third week of July, rainfall was deficient in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Sowing was expected to gather pace in August, CMIE said.
Except for sugarcane, whose sowing was over, acreage under all the major kharif crops was expected to improve in August.
By August 8, rice acreage was 25.1 million hectares, up by 7 per cent from last year. Acreage under the remaining kharif cereals comprising of jowar, bajra and maize was down by end-July when compared to the same period of 2007. By end- July, area under jowar was down by 14 per cent and that under bajra was 18 per cent lower, CMIE said.
Less rainfall in the southern states reduced sowing of pulses like arhar, black gram and green gram. In total, pulses covered only 78.4 lakh hectares by the first week of August, compared to 92.9 lakh hectares a year ago.
