Sowing of Kharif crops are going on in full swing and farmers are looking forward to a good harvest this year in the light of good monsoon forecast in the country.
The record harvest is expected to help keep food inflation under control.
As per preliminary reports of crop coverage in the Kharif season received by the Ministry of Agriculture, the total sown area as on June 9, 2017, stands at 81.33 lakh hectares as compared to 72.31 lakh hectares at this time last year. Rice has been sown in 5.51 lakh hectares while pulses in 1.64 lakh hectares and sugarcane in 47.39 lakh hectares.
However, the progress will have to be watched closely in the coming days in view of the ongoing farmers protest in some States like Madhya Pradesh. Sowing operation in the Kharif season begins normally with the onset of southwest monsoon and picks up the pace from July.
Paddy, tur, moong, urad, soyabean, sunflower seed and cotton are main crops grown in this season.
The data shows that as far as rice sowing is concerned, 1.79 lakh hectare more area has been cultivated as compared to 3.72 lakh hectare area in 2016-17. Higher area is reported from Arunachal Pradesh (0.63 lakh hectare), Nagaland (0.38 lakh hectare), West Bengal (0.35 lakh hectare), Chhattisgarh (0.33 lakh hectare), Tripura (0.27 lakh hectare), Karnataka (0.20 lakh hectare), Tamil Nadu (0.17 lakh hect), Kerala (0.12 lakh hectare) and Jammu and Kashmir (0.04 lakh hect) while Assam (0.67 lakh ha) and Odisha (0.05 lakh ha) are reported less this year.
As per report, pulses have sown at about 1.64 lakh ha of land as compared to 1.20 lakh ha last year during the same period. Higher area sown is reported from Karnataka (0.56 lakh ha), Tamil Nadu (0.02 lakh ha), and Assam (0.01 lakh ha) while less area is reported from Gujarat (0.01 lakh ha) and Haryana (0.15 lakh ha).
The data further shows coarse cereals has been sown in 4.59 lakh ha as compared to 4.62 lakh ha in last year. Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and West Bengal have reported higher area sown while Karnataka, Punjab, Odisha and Tamil Nadu reported less sowing area this year.
Similarly Sugarcane has been sown in 47.39 lakh ha this season as compared to 42.78 lakh ha last year during the same period. The cultivation of cotton is expected to be lower this year as 14.06 lakh ha land sown this year as compared to 14.39 lakh ha last year.
According to the third advance estimate of crops, total foodgrain production in the country is estimated at 273.38 million tonnes which is higher by 8.34 million tonnes (3.15 percent) than the previous record production of foodgrain of 265.04 million tonnes achieved during 2013-14.
The production of rice, the most popular staple, is estimated at a record 109.15 MT, which is also a new record. The government has projected wheat output to reach an all-time high of 97.44 MT in the 2016-17 crop year (July-June).