Despite normal monsoon, sowing of rice in 2017-18 has declined as compared to the year 2016-17. However, sowing of arhar or pigeon pea, a major Kharif pulse which farmers sold at less than support prices last year, is 6.39 percent lower than the year before. The Ministry of Agriculture’s latest data revealed that rice has sown in 216.23 lakh hectare of land this year as compared to 225 .10 lakh hectare in 2016-17. The total sowing area stands at 791.34 lakh hectares under Kharif crops as compared to 765.79 lakh hectare at this time last year.
Meanwhile majority of farmers have increased cultivation of uradbean, cotton and bajra crops midway into the kharif crop planting season this year. Sowing of Kharif crops begins in June and continues through July as the monsoon progresses across the country.
As per data, pulses has sown in 114.88 lakh hectare of land, coarse cereals in 150.19 lakh hectare of land, sugarcane in 49.15 lakh hectare and cotton in 111.55 lakh hectare.
According to Ministry of Agriculture, the major rice producing states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Telangana and Manipur have reported less acreage of rice due to erratic southwest monsoon while Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh have sown more areas under rice. According to weatherman, West Bengal has received 20 per cent less rainfall while Jharkhand received 24 per cent less rainfall till July 9. Karnataka has received 20 to 35 per cent less rainfall and Kerala has received 43 per cent less rain in the last 57 days.
According to officials, in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, sowing of rice declined due to insufficient water in major dam and declining in ground water tables day by day. The rice area acreage is less in Assam due to flood. late starting of transplanting in UP, Punjab, Chattisgarh and Jharkhad also reason of decline in sowing of rice. The Government expects rice production to reach 109.15 million tonnes this crop year, 0.26 percent higher than the second advance estimate output and breaking the previous record production of 106.65 million tonnes achieved during 2013-14.
Rice is the most important food crop covering about one-fourth of the total cropped area and providing food to about half of the country’s population. This is the staple food of the people living in the eastern and the southern parts of the country.
As far as Arhar is concerned, 34.342 lakh hectare was sown as compared to 41.277 lakh hectare last year.
The area under cotton cultivation was 21 percent higher than a year ago at 111.55 lakh hectares, with higher planting in Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Cotton is expected to be grown on 12.25 million hectares this year. However, sowing area under jute/mesta remained lower at 7.03 lakh hectare as against 7.55 lakh hectare in the said period.
On the other hand, the Agriculture Ministry’s third advance estimates of major crops pegged the production at 273.38 million tonnes, 0.51 percent higher than the second advance estimate. This year’s output betters the record production of 2013-14 by 3.15 percent.