Pulses sowing down 27% at 3.32 lakh hectares

Area under pulses, whose prices are on the rise, is down 27 per cent at 3.32 lakh hectares in the ongoing 2016-17 kharif season, despite higher support prices announced by the government.
Farmers had sown pulses in 4.53 lakh hectares in the year ago period.
The government hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of pulses by up to Rs 425 per quintal for this year to boost output and check price rise.
Prices of pulses continued to rule high at up to Rs 200 per kg in the country.
Similarly raising the support price of paddy by Rs 60 per quintal has not yielded desired results as its acreage has declined by 10 per cent so far in the current kharif season to 9.17 lakh hectares as against 10.19 lakh hectares last year.

"The total sown area as on June 17, as per reports received from states, stands at 84.21 lakh hectare as compared to 93.63 lakh hectare at this time last year," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

The decline in lower sowing is also attributed to delay of monsoon.
According to the data, coarse cereals acreage is lower at 6.01 lakh hectares so far compared with 7.19 lakh hectares in the same period last year year.
This trend of lower acreage is visible in non-food grains category also.
The oilseeds sowing is at 1.88 lakh hectares as against 2.92 lakh hectares in the same period last kharif season.

Cotton sowing is also lagging behind at 12.25 lakh hectares compared with 19.66 lakh hectares a year-ago.
Sugarcane is the only crop whose acreage is reported higher at 44.38 lakh hectares so far as against 41.51 lakh hectares.
"The monsoon is arriving at almost the same time as IMD predicted. We are hopeful and optimistic that there will be higher sowing and a very good production this year. Overall, this will be good year for agriculture," Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Patnaik had said earlier.
India's foodgrains production stood at around 252 million tonnes (MT) during the 2015-16 and 2014-15 crop years (July- June) due to two consecutive drought year.