Steady increase in Kharif sowing reaches 87.67 mn hectare

With the narrowing of rainfall deficiency across the country, sowing of kharif crops has shown a steady increase as the total acreage has risen to 87.67 million hectares, although still lower than a year ago.
"The total sown area as on August 14, as per reports received from States, stands at 876.70 lakh hectare as compared to 928.03 lakh hectare at this time last year," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
Sowing of kharif crops showed a steady increase during this week, it added. As of August 8, the total sowing area was 80.33 million hectare.
Minister of State for Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh had said earlier this week that the latest estimate suggests the 2014 southwest monsoon rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be 87 per cent of the Long Period Average.

Sowing of kharif crop begins with the onset of monsoon as a majority of the agriculture land in the country is dependant on rains.
As of today, rice has been sown in 29.62 million hectares, coarse cereals in 15.77 million hectares, pulses in 8.74 million hectares, oilseeds in 16.30 million hectares and sugarcane in 4.71 million hectares.

The acreage sown to these crops is still lower than the year-ago period because sowing operations got delayed due to late arrival of southwest monsoon.
However, the sowing area of cotton has increased to 11.69 million hectares from 11.09 million hectares.
Good rains have also improved water level in 85 reservoirs across the country. It is around 88.7 billion cubic meters, which is 16 per cent above the last 10 years' average, as per the official data.