Paddy area improves as monsoon active over east India

According to the IMD, June ended with an overall rainfall deficiency of 11 per cent

Sowing of kharif crops, mainly of paddy, improved a bit as the southwest monsoon became active over eastern parts of the country. However, the total acreage remained below last year's level mainly due to a fall in sowing area of cotton, oilseeds and pulses.

In cotton, the area was almost 50 per cent less than last year, as the southwest monsoon remained patchy over Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana.

Officials said there could be some pick-up in the coming days as the southwest monsoon enters western and northern parts of the country in the next few weeks.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), June ended with an overall rainfall deficiency of 11 per cent. Sowing of kharif crops begins with the onset of southwest monsoon from June and harvesting from October.

Data released by the agriculture ministry showed kharif crops were sown on 21.58 million hectare as on Friday, against 27.92 million hectares a year ago. Paddy, the main kharif crop, was covered on 4.77 million hectares so far this year, marginally higher than 4.76 million hectares in the year-ago period. Maximum area under paddy was covered in Punjab, followed by Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.

Area sown to coarse cereals was down 15 per cent at 3.71 million hectares against 4.37 million hectares in the said period.

Similarly, pulses acreage was down 11 per cent at 1.98 million hectares against 2.22 million hectares in the said period, out of which the maximum area of 0.7 million hectares were covered in Karnataka. Even area under oilseeds was down 47 per cent at 2.87 million hectares, when compared to 5.42 million hectares.

The government had announced a significant rise in support price of pulses and oilseeds this year to boost production and reduce the country's dependence on imports.

Among cash crops, cotton planting was down 49 per cent at 3.05 million hectares, against 6.01 million hectares in the year-ago period. Jute area was down at 0.74 million hectares from 0.76 million hectares, but sugarcane area rose marginally to 4.43 million hectares from 4.36 million hectares.