Pulses and oilseed area rising in AP and Telangana as Kharif progresses

Pulses, oil seeds and maize are among the top crops that are leading the ongoing Kharif sowings in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, even though there is still a couple of more weeks left for the sowing of irrigated dry (ID) crops during the current season.

In Telangana, pulses and soybean have already crossed the normal acreage under these crops as some portion of cotton area was being shifted to these and other alternate crops, according to the officials.

Telangana government had actively campaigned against cotton farming, which now accounts for 32% of the total gross cropped area of 53.2 lakh hectare. Owing to its drought resistant characteristics, cotton crop was favoured by the farmers in Telangana.

The Paddy plantation, which stretches up to the first week of August in Telangana and beyond the first week of August in AP owing to the delayed water release under canal irrigation, are yet to pick up pace.

AP and Telangana have a normal cropped area of 40.96 lakh hectares and 43.44 lakh hectares, respectively, in the Kharif season. So far, sowing operations were completed in 33% and 51% of the normal area in AP and Telangana, respectively, according to the data updated by the respective agriculture departments on Wednesday.

Unlike in the previous years, both the states have received normal to excess rainfall from June till July 12.

Paddy is the largest crop in AP with a normal cropped area of 16.03 lakh hectares in the Kharif season, though paddy plantation takes place at the fag end of the season. "Sowing in over 60% of the area under the ID crops have already been completed in the state, while paddy operations have not yet picked up momentum," a senior official of the AP agriculture department told Business Standard.

In Telangana, paddy is the second-largest crop with a normal cropped area of 9.86 lakh hectares, while cotton occupies the largest area of 17.09 lakh hectares in the Kharif season. Telangana is among the top 3-4 cotton growing states in India.

Coming to pulses, with the completion of sowing in 4.22 lakh hectares, pulses area stood at 104% of its normal cropped area in Telangana as on Wednesday. Of this, red gram (tur dal) is sown in 2.71 lakh hectares. In AP, sowing in about 65% of 2.53 lakh-hectare normal cropped area of pulses has been completed.

Groundnut is the second-largest crop in AP, with a normal cropped area of 9.30 lakh hectares in the Kharif season. So far, sowing of groundnut crop was completed in 5.88 lakh hectares, almost double the area compared to the sowing of the crop during the same period last year, indicating a likely increase of the crop during the season.

In Telangana, soybean was sown in 2.70 lakh hectares as against the normal cropped area of 2 lakh hectares. Maize is the other major crop in Telangana, which was already sown in 3.67 lakh hectares as compared to the normal cropped area of 4.91 lakh hectares.

However, paddy plantation is complete in only 8% and 13% of the total cropped area under paddy in Telangana and AP, respectively.

Despite the drought conditions, Telanana and AP produced 68 lakh tonnes and 64 lakh tonnes of foodgrains, respectively, during the last year. Area under foodgrains was 19.86 lakh hectares and 19.48 lakh hectares in AP and Telangana.

While paddy production accounted for 57.18 lakh tonnes of the total foodgrain production in AP, in Telangana the production of paddy, maize and pulses stood at 39.74 lakh tonnes, 23.94 lakh tonnes and 3.38 lakh tonnes, respectively, in 2015-16.