Summer crop acreage sees 15.34% growth over last year, shows data

As farmers all over North India continue protests against the three farm Acts, acreage of summer crops saw a sharp increase during the week ended March 19, as sowing continued unabated in other regions of the country.
 
The data shows that till March 19, summer crops have been sown over 5.09 million hectares of land, which is 15.34 per cent more than the same period last year.
 
Summer crops, or zaid crops, are cultivated in the intervening period between the rabi and kharif seasons.
 
Sowing for these crops largely starts around March and the crop is harvested in June to coincide with the advent of the southwest monsoon.
 
Pulses (largely moong), coarse cereals, and rice, along with a variety of vegetables, are the main crops growing during this period, most of which are of short-duration varieties.
 
Even though they constitute a small portion of the overall agricultural production, focus on summer crops has sharpened in the past few years as an additional source of revenue for the farmers.

 
The Centre, too, holds separate brainstorming sessions to strategise ways to increase the production of summer crops, which, till a few years back, was limited to the crops grown during the two main kharif and rabi seasons.
 
Meanwhile, from the previous rabi crop, latest updates show that around 21 per cent of the previous wheat crop has been harvested, while the number goes up to over 65 per cent in the case of pulses and oilseeds. Data, meanwhile, show that rainfall during the sowing months of summer crops (from March 1 to March 18) has been around 8.0 mm, as against the normal benchmark of 16.0 mm —therefore 50 per cent less than normal.
 
A report furnished by the Central Water Commission, as of March 18, shows that the live water storage available in 130 reservoirs in the country constitutes 87 per cent of the live storage in the corresponding period of last year. It is also 122 per cent of the storage of the average past ten years.
 
The sowing data also show that among summer crops, rice has been sown in around 3.50 million hectares till March 18, which is around 18 per cent more than last year.
 
Higher rice acreage has been recorded mainly from West Bengal, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.
 
Among other crops, pulses have been sown in around 0.41 million hectares, which is 37 per cent more than the area covered during the same period last year. Oilseeds have been sown in around 0.60 million hectares, which is almost 9.09 per cent more than the area covered during the same period last year.
 
Coarse cereals have been sown around 0.56 million hectares till March 18, 2021 as against 0.57 million hectares during the same period last year.