Sowing of pulses jumps on good rains, shift from soybean

A strong recovery in the southwest monsoon in the first week of July, with showers being around 35% more than normal, seems to have helped

There are strong signals that some areas under soybean in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, its prime growing states, could shift towards pulses in this kharif season. In Karnataka, too, farmers are bringing more area under pulses.

A strong recovery in the southwest monsoon in the first week of July, with showers being around 35 per cent more than normal, seems to have helped.

Till the first week of July in Madhya Pradesh (MP), an additional 140,000 hectares (ha) had been brought under pulses as compared to the same period last year. In Karnataka, an extra 514,000 ha. And, in Rajasthan, the area under pulses is 231,800 ha more than last year at this time.

Overall, the total area under pulses is around 4.59 million ha, 26 per cent more than at the same period last year.

At the same time, soybean sowing in MP is almost 650,000 ha less than last year; in Maharashtra, 850,000 ha less than in 2015-16. In Rajasthan, also a main soybean growing state, around 150,000 ha less than last year. Officials said much of the drop had gone towards pulses.

Even the industry feels that at least in MP, five to 15 per cent of the area hitherto under soybean might shift to pulses this year. The crop was planted on 11-million ha there in 2015-16.

If this happens and the trend is maintained till the end of the kharif sowing season, it will mark a big change in India's cropping pattern and somewhat vindicate the Centre's efforts to boost output by raising the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and undertaking assured procurement. The Centre in May raised the MSP of arhar (red gram) by Rs 425 a quintal (qtl) to Rs 5,050 a qtl, and of moong (green gram) and urad (black gram) each by Rs 375 to Rs 5,225 a qtl and and Rs 5,000 a qtl, respectively.

The soybean MSP was increased by Rs 175 to Rs 2,775 a qtl, apparently 233 a qtl more than the cost of production. While that of arhar was raised to Rs 736 higher than the cost as estimated by the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices.

That apart, the open market rate of soybean has been falling; the maximum quoted is around Rs 4,000 a qtl (Rs 40 a kg). While most pulses are selling at around Rs 100 a kg in retail markets.

In Punjab, there have been reports that land under cotton has has moved towards pulses, as farmers fear a repeat of the 2015 whitefly attack.

Overall, in all kharif crops, sowing picked up pace due to the strong recovery of the southwest monsoon from July 1, particularly over central, western and eastern India, reducing the gap in sowing from last year to around six per cent. Till last week, the area sown was around 23 per cent less than the area sown in 2015.

As of Wednesday, 40.7 million ha had been brought under kharif crops as against 43.2-million ha in the same period last year.