Dry Bundelkhand gets rain bounty, acreage up by 5% to 1.1 mn hectares

The total kharif crop acreage in UP now stands at more than 9 Mn Ha, including 6 Mn Ha of paddy and 1.7 Mn Ha of pulses

Bountiful rainfall in arid Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh has not only ended the drought spell of previous years but has also translated into the kharif acreage rising by almost 50,000 hectares this year.

The area under different kharif (summer) crops across 7 Bundelkhand districts has been estimated at almost 1.1 million hectares (MH) in 2018 compared to 1.05 MH in 2017, thus rising by 5 per cent, owing to a good monsoon and government’s sustained efforts to increase acreage.

Bundelkhand comprises Lalitpur, Jhansi, Jaluan, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda and Chitrakoot districts. The adjacent districts of Madhya Pradesh also constitute the