Rice sowing lags behind by 1.5% so far

Sowing of rice, the main kharif crop, is lagging behind by 1.5 per cent at 366.30 lakh hectare so far this crop year, but the gap is likely to be covered coming weeks in Tamil Nadu and Assam.
Apart from rice, area so far sown to pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals and even jute/mesta is lower than the year-ago period, according to the Agriculture Ministry's latest data.
Sowing of kharif (summer) crops begin with the onset of southwest monsoon from June and the harvesting from October. The sowing operations is almost coming to the closure.
As per the data, rice has been sown in 366.30 lakh hectare so far in the 2017-18 kharif season as against 372.03 lakh hectare in the same period last year.

Similarly, less area has been covered under pulses at 137.61 lakh hectare as against 143.08 lakh hectare, while that of coarse cereals in 180.60 lakh hectare as against 183.44 lakh hectare and oilseeds in 166.80 lakh hectare when compared with 180.81 lakh hectare in the said period.
"The gap in rice coverage was mainly because of Tamil Nadu and Assam. The sowing window is open till December in these states. Planting will get a boost with current good rains," a senior Agriculture Ministry official said.

Among cash crops, area sown to sugarcane has increased to 49.88 lakh hectare so far this kharif season from 45.64 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.

Similarly, cotton acreage has also gone up to 119.88 lakh hectare from 101.72 lakh hectare in the said period.
However, sowing area of jute/mesta remained lower at 7.05 lakh hectare so far this season when compared with 7.56 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.
Total area sown to all kharif crops was also down at 1,028.14 lakh hectare from 1,034.28 lakh hectare in year-ago period.
The Met Department has projected 'normal' southwest monsoon rains this year. So far, there is 6 per cent shortfall.