With the south-west monsoon having traversed the eastern states and the peninsula to reach the Central region and north India receiving widespread pre-monsoon precipitation, the kharif cropping season is off to a good start.
Planting activity is reported to be gathering momentum in most areas. Agriculture experts feel there are good chances this year of covering the bulk of cropland with timely-sown crops, a pre-requisite for good harvest. The meteorological department has already predicted a normal rainfall in the current monsoon season (June to September).
Though it may be too premature to talk about final production, the current outlook seems quite encouraging, according to Krishi Bhawan sources. It seems possible now to not only reverse last year's downtrend in kharif output but to achieve a perceptible positive growth.
The kharif grain output had fallen last year to 103 million tonnes from 105 million tonnes in the previous season. No firm output goal has been fixed for the current kharif though the planning commission's overall target of producing 210 million tonnes of foodgrain in 1998-99 has been accepted by the agriculture ministry.
Extensive showers in the pre-monsoon period in the north-western region, largely under the influence of the western disturbance and the cyclone that struck Gujarat and Rajasthan on June 9, provided a head start to the kharif sowing. These rains also came to the rescue of standing short-duration summer crops of pulses and oilseeds sown after the rabi harvest which had managed to survive the intense heat in first fortnight of this month. Vegetables and other horticultural crops, showing signs of heat burn, too, stand to benefit from the rains.
Besides, the commercial crops, such as sugarcane and cotton, are reported to have benefited immensely from this rainfall. Its effect on cotton is said to be specially significant because the standing crop was under considerable stress due to prolonged hot spell in north India. The crop had to be re-sown, even twice at some places, in the north-western cotton belt of Fazilka, Abhohar and Bhatinda areas of Punjab and Ganganagar and Bikaner tracts of Rajasthan. The standing crop is expected to get a fresh lease of life with this precipitation.
Paddy transplanting had started in the middle of May in the irrigated areas of Punjab and Haryana, the country's major rice surplus belt. This has been made possible because of the hot spell which facilitated quicker harvesting and disposal of the wheat crop, vacating land for paddy sowing.
In southern states, planting of oilseeds, pulses and coarse cereals has begun with the setting in of the monsoon. The sowing operations are expected to get a shot in the arm with fresh bout of rainfall after a brief lull. Most of these areas, barring the coastal strip in Kerala and parts of Karnataka, are reported to have received normal monsoon rainfall so far. Even in the rain-deficient coastal pockets, the precipitation already received is deemed adequate for planting seeds.
