Kharif acreage improves further but heavy downpour a cause for concern

Relentless monsoon has damaged standing crops as in many places; heavy impact on pulses in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and parts of UP

The area covered under kharif crops further improved during the week ended August 6, as the southwest monsoon continued its good run over the Central, West and Northern parts of the country.

Between last week and this week, the short fall in kharif acreage has narrowed from 4.71 per cent (as on July 30) to 2.36 per cent (as on August 6).

However, as compared to the normal acreage (which in this case is the average area covered during full sowing season of the past five years), the sowing of kharif crops was almost 15 per cent down.

The relentless monsoon now is posing a fresh set of problems for the growers as in many places standing crops have been damaged. Trade sources said pulses in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and parts of Uttar Pradesh have suffered damage.

Crisil Research in a report said that while overall monsoon has shown a revival, the erratic distribution of rainfall has caused major concern for farmers especially in states like Gujarat (which accounts for 40 per cent of groundnut and 20 per cent of cotton acreage) which is at a cumulative deficit of 40 per cent from the onset of Monsoon and Odisha (which contributes 8 per cent of total paddy acreage) has received 25 per cent lower rainfall till August 5.

 

“We may witness a crop shift in Gujarat from groundnut and cotton to castor, a hardy crop which can survive the prolonged water stress. On the other hand, recent heavy downpour in Maharashtra has been preliminarily estimated to damage nearly 1 Lakh hectare of crops, especially in districts of central Maharashtra i.e. Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara impacting crops like Sugarcane, paddy, and soybean,” the report said.

Overall, during the monsoon revival phase which started from July 13, Crisil said that the country has received two per cent more rainfall till August 5.