Amid fall in prices, farmers have sown pulses in 2.22 lakh hectare so far in the 2017-18 kharif season, down 38 percent from the last season, but the planting is likely pick up from next month with southwest monsoon reaching more parts of rainfed areas. Much of the kharif crops sowing is undertaken during the monsoon period, between July and September. However, farmers are sowing early in some parts with assured irrigation.
As per the latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry, pulses are sown in 2.22 lakh hectare so far in the 2017-18 kharif season that normally begins from July, as against 3.63 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.
After bumper crops last year, sowing of all major pulses such as arhar, urd bean, moong bean and other pulses are down. Arhar is expected to be down by 38.78 percent while uradbean is down by 82.51 percent. Moongbean is expected to down by 27 percent and sowing of other pulses are down by 16 percent. It needs to be seen how pulses sowing will progress, considering that farmers are distressed over prices of Tur, falling below the
support price.
According to data, Higher area sown is reported from Himachal Pradesh (0.07 lakh ha) and Punjab (0.02 lakh ha) while Karnataka (0.12 lakh ha), Maharashtra (0.11 lakh ha), Haryana (0.08 lakh ha), Tamil Nadu (0.05 lakh ha), Gujarat (0.04 lakh ha), Telangana (0.03 lakh ha), Andhra Pradesh (0.03 lakh ha) and Odisha (0.01 lakh ha).
According to the ministry data, rice — the main kharif crop — has been sown in 9.22 lakh hectare, down from 9.40 lakh hectare in the year-ago period. Similarly, oilseeds are sown in 1.88 lakh hectare as against 2.63 lakh hectare, while that of coarse cereals acreage has gone up to 8.44 lakh hectare as compared to 7.65 lakh hectare.
Officials of Agriculture Ministry said that despite bumper crops of pulses, farmers are not happy as they forced to sell below MSP. This may be reason for less cultivation of pulses this year.
Pulses production in 2016-17 is likely to be around 22.40 million tonnes (as per the third estimate released by Agriculture Ministry) which is higher by 3.15 million tonnes than the previous record production of 19.25 million tonnes in 2013-14.
In September 2016, following a good monsoon and expectations of a bumper crop, the Centre decided to increase procurement to 2 million tonnes from 1,50,000 tonnes in the previous year.
But despite the increased target, the procurement accounts for just 10 per cent of the produce, with the remaining having to be sold in the open market, at a far lower price. Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the annual production of pulses has been around 16-19 million tonnes. Every year, an additional 3-5 million tonnes of pulses have been imported as demand has been higher than production.
Paddy, tur, moong, urad, soyabean, sunflower seed and cotton are main crops grown in this season.
Among cash crops, sugarcane acreage was up at 47.52 lakh hectare so far this kharif season from 44.82 lakh hectare in the year-ago period. Cotton acreage was up at 16.67 lakh hectare as against 12.25 lakh hectare, while on the other side jute acreage remained lower at 6.90 lakh hectare as against 7.22 lakh hectare a year ago.
However, total acreage under all kharif crops so far stood at 92.85 lakh hectare, higher than 87.59 lakh hectare in the same period last kharif season.
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.