Kharif sowing down 3.8 % to 11.85 million hectares

Kharif sowing in Maharashtra has been completed on 11.85 million hectares as on Saturday, down 3.8 per cent from the year-ago period, according to the data from the state's Commissioner of Agriculture.

So far, 88.3 per cent of the total land under cultivation has been sown.

The state agriculture department has set a sowing target of 14.32 million hectares for the June-October kharif season.

The area under groundnut cultivation was 302,861 hectares, up 11 per cent, and soybean sowing marginally rose to 2.30 million hectares.

The cotton acreage increased 2 per cent to 2.71 million hectares, while the area under new sugarcane crop was down 75 per cent at 29,702 hectares.

In pulses, the area under moong rose 22.5 per cent to 531,495 hectares, and urad acreage was up 19 per cent at 451,167 hectares, while tur was down 19 per cent to 866,230 hectares.

The area under maize cultivation was at 596,941 hectares, up 30 per cent, while paddy acreage was down 1 per cent to 1.04 million hectares. The bajra acreage fell 4.5 per cent to 1.16 million hectares, while jowar was at 901,817 hectares, down 35.8 per cent.