Rice, wheat, pulses production to be less as compared to 2018
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, it does not augur well for the Modi Government. The production of rice, wheat and pulses is expected to be lower as the gap between rabi sowing this year and the previous year has further widened with the difference surpassing more than 30 lakh hectares for the first time in the current season. Earlier, this month the gap of rabi plantation in 2018-19 and the previous year was only 10 lakh hectare which is now increased to 30 lakh hectare.
According to the Agriculture Ministry’s latest data, as compared to 622.12 lakh hectares planted in 2017-18, the sowing covered only 591.64 lakh hectares till Friday this year. In other words, 30 lakh hectare less planted this year during rabi crop season. The Pioneer had earlier reported that recent rainfall and hail storm damaged the potatoes, pulses, oilseed and wheat crops in Bihar, western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. As many as 1.95 crore hectare of land in 97 districts of six States - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan - are facing drought this year. These States have sought relief of Rs 16,773 crore from the Centre to tackle drought situation. But Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have not sought relief from the Centre due to tedious process to get relief from the Centre. Odisha has also declared drought during Kharif 2018 but the State Government has not submitted any memorandum so far. As per IMD, 250 of the 681 districts across the country have faced deficient rainfall this year.
As per the data, the worst hit seems to be winter rice, which reported a shortfall of more than 21 per cent in planting, with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu reporting a huge drop in rice acreage. Tamil Nadu, which accounts for nearly half the rice cultivation in the rabi season, reported a nearly 27 per cent shortfall in sowing.
The Agriculture Ministry said 10.20 lakh hectare less area covered for wheat cultivation this year. Wheat cultivation is restricted to 296.37 lakh hectare which is 2.5 per cent lower than the 304.88 lakh hectare reported in the corresponding week in the previous rabi season. The shortfall was mainly from Maharashtra and Gujarat, which are suffering a drought currently. West Bengal, Rajasthan and Bihar also reported less wheat cultivation this year due to lack of soil moisture due to erratic rainfall during south west monsoon season this year.
The acreage under pulses dropped to 151.6 lakh hectare, a little over six per cent lower than in the same period in 2017-18. The drop is mainly due to less sowing of gram - the main rabi pulse crop - in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka and Gujarat.
Though there was a slight increase in pulses acreage in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, it wasn’t enough to pull up the numbers. Two pulse varieties that have reported higher sowing this year were green peas and kulthi, which are substantially higher than in the same period last year.
Another group of crops hit by drought conditions is coarse cereals. As per data, there is less cultivation of oilseed in Maharashtra and Karnataka has led to a 14 per cent fall in acreage, which is 47 lakh hectare as compared to 54.63 lakh hectare in the corresponding period in the previous year.
A good showing by the mustard crop, mainly in Rajasthan, has somehow helped oilseeds come up close to the levels last year. The total area covered under oilseeds so far is around 79 lakh hectare.