Paddy sowing in Punjab, Haryana on target despite weak monsoon; cotton, maize coverage hit

Punjab, which is a well-irrigated state, has witnessed 60% deficient rains while Haryana saw 57% lesser rains during the kharif sowing season

"Deficient" rains have had no impact on sowing of paddy - a major Kharif crop -in Punjab and Haryana, even as the input cost of paddy growers went up significantly for watering the crop.

Though crop sowing in Haryana almost remained insulated from the "weak" monsoon, sowing of cotton and maize was hit in Punjab in the wake of poor rains.

Punjab, which is a well-irrigated state, has witnessed 60 per cent deficient rains while Haryana saw 57 per cent lesser rains during the kharif sowing season, officials said here.

Even as apprehensions were expressed over lesser area coverage under paddy because of deficient rains, the area under paddy crossed the targeted area to 2.82 million hectares in Punjab. An official of the Punjab Agriculture Department said here on Thursday, "Area under paddy has finally reached 2.82 million hectares. Crop sowing is over now."

A target of 2.65 million hectares was set for paddy during the current season as the state government had proposed to bring down area by 200,000 hectares under "water guzzling" crop as part of crop diversification programme. However, that could not take place.

Punjab paddy growers' cost is expected to increase by Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per acre because of "deficient" rains as farmers had to spend extra money on diesel and deepening of tubewells for irrigating paddy in the wake of lesser rains.

In Haryana, 1.13 million hectares were brought under paddy against the target of 1.15 million hectares, said an official of the Haryana Agriculture Department. As far as other kharif crops are concerned, cotton area in Punjab could not reach the targeted 520,000 hectares, which will lead to lesser cotton output this year. "Area under cotton could reach only 450,000 hectares as against target of 520,000 hectares," he said. Cotton area in Haryana zoomed to 642,000 hectares, surpassing the target of 600,000 hectares.

Area under maize, which was being promoted by the Punjab government as an alternative crop to paddy, was also not up to the mark as only 163,000 hectares could be brought under it against the target of 200,000 hectares.