Chhattisgarh completes kharif sowing in 60% of targeted acreage

Good monsoon has resulted in the completion of kharif sowing in 60 per cent of the targeted acreage for the current season in Chhattisgarh.
 

As against the target of 4.8 million hectares, kharif sowing has been done in 2.8 million hectares, Chhattisgarh’s agriculture minister Brijmohan Agrawal said. The sowing target set for the kharif season 2017 would be easily achieved in the state, he added.

The sowing of paddy crop is also believed to be satisfactory in the state that is one of the largest contributors of rice in the country. Chhattisgarh has set a target to produce 8.2 million tonnes (mt) of paddy in the ongoing kharif season. The output target is two per cent higher than the state's paddy output during the last kharif season.

Inspite of the increased target, paddy acreage in the state has come down by 3 per cent in the Kharif season 2017. Paddy would be sown in 3.50 million hectares of area, down from 3.74 million hectares in the year-ago period.

Agrawal said paddy sowing has been completed in 2.30 million hectares, about 65 per cent of the state's paddy sowing target. The sowing work for the other crops, including oil seeds and pulse seeds, was also satisfactory.

The state had been receiving a good rainfall, a major factor for the paddy output. So far, Chhattisgarh has received about 94 per cent of the average rainfall. The state has witnessed 352.0 millimetres of rainfall in the current monsoon till now as against 375.5 millimetres of average rainfall for the corresponding period in the past decade. Chhattisgarh annual average rainfall is 1,286.9 millimetres.