Low rainfall hits sowing in Maharashtra

Less than a tenth of the cultivable area in Maharashtra has been sowed till date, due to low rainfall.

It has been completed on 1.23 million hectares (mha), of a total area of 13.23 mha, excluding sugarcane cultivation. This is about nine per cent. Last year at this time, it was over in 28 per cent of the area.

Sowing for paddy is on just six per cent. It’s three per cent for jowar, four per cent for maize, eight per cent for tur, three per cent for both moong and urad, 18 per cent for cotton, 15 per cent for groundnut and 15 per cent for soybean.

However, it is quite different in the case of sugarcane. Against the normal average cultivation of 708,000 hectares, plantation has taken place on 976,000 ha. The state government is hopeful that sowing would pick up after the middle of July, when rainfall is expected to spread across the state. As of now, rain has been 120 per cent of the average in Konkan, Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Nashik and Nandurbar. It has been between 80 and 120 per cent in 15 districts. In another 13 districts, it is below 60 per cent.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the state cabinet had taken took a comprehensive review of the situation. “A contingency crop plan has been prepared in view of the low level of sowing,” he said.

Officials of the agriculture department said agriculture universities have indicated the sowing of soybean, bajra, sunflower and maize should be complete by July 15 and in the case of jowar, grown up in black soil-rich Vidarbha, by July 10. It was too early to project actual kharif production.

In the case of fertiliser, the central government has approved 4.3 million tonnes against the demand of 4.6 mt. Against the seed requirement of 1.83 mt, availability is 2.06 mt. Of the genetically modified cotton seed packets of 18 million asked for, nearly 84 per cent had been supplied.