The five-year annual average area under all kharif crops, which include cotton, sugarcane and jute too, is around 109 million hectares (MH).
Written by Sandip Das
June 17, 2023
With the sluggish progress of the monsoon following a late onset over the Kerala coast on June 8, the sowing of kharif crops has taken a hit, according to agriculture ministry data as on Friday. So far, sowing of rice, pulses and oilseeds have declined by 14.6%, 57.2% and 14.4%, respectively, on year.
However, sowing of cotton and coarse cereals has been up 6% and 64% on year, respectively. Officials said that these are still early days and sowing activities are likely to pick up pace in the next couple of weeks.
The five-year annual average area under all kharif crops, which include cotton, sugarcane and jute too, is around 109 million hectares (MH). So far, 9.92 MH has been covered under all kharif crops, which is marginally higher than the corresponding area last year, thanks mainly to sugarcane plantations that started in May.
If sugarcane, the plantation of which starts much before monsoon, is excluded, the kharif area so far is down by 49%. The cumulative monsoon rainfall across the country, according to India Meteorological Department, (IMD) during June 1–13 has been 47% less than the benchmark long period average (LPA). In terms of regional variations, monsoon deficiency has been 67% (central India) and 59% (south peninsula) so far.
Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general, IMD, said the monsoon will progress into the south peninsula, parts of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the eastern states during June 17-21, after some interruptions because of cyclone Biporjoy.
“Widespread rainfall activity with isolated heavy to very heavy fall likely to continue over northeast India and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim during next five days,” said IMD on Friday.
Private weather forecaster Skymet has predicted that moderate to heavy heavy spells of rain may occur over Northeast India, the Kutch region of Gujarat and south Rajasthan in the next 24 hours.
Last week, the government had hiked the minimum support prices (MSP) of the key kharif crops for 2023-24 season (July-June) by 6-10.4%, the highest increase since 2018-19. The MSP for paddy, the key kharif crop, is fixed at Rs 2,183/quintal, up 7% on year.
The MSPs of oilseeds and pulses have been hiked by 7–10%. Elevated MSPs, backed by procurement, could potentially boost rural income in higher areas under kharif crops. “Higher MSP would encourage farmers to take up more area under kharif crops,” Binod Anand, member, Prime Minister-committee on MSP, crop diversification and natural farming, said.
India’s foodgrain production rose by 5% on year to a new record of 330.5 MT for the 2022-23 crop year, according to the agriculture ministry. The main pulses grown during kharif are tur, urad and moong, while the key oilseeds are groundnut and sunflower. Coarse cereals (nutri-cereals) include maize, bajra and ragi. (Source: www.financialexpress.com)