SOWING OF COARSE CEREALS, PULSES
AND OILSEEDS LIKELY TO ACCELERATE
With the monsoon
covering large parts of central and western areas of the country,
sowing of coarse cereals, pulses and oil seeds is likely to accelerate
in coming days. The Crop Weather Watch Group of the Agriculture
Ministry has noted that the progress of area coverage of these
crops is lagging behind last year’s coverage mainly due to delay
in the onset of the monsoon.
The total area coverage
of Kharif rice reported so far is 30.2 lakh hectares compared
to 35.3 lakh hectares during the corresponding period last year.
With the advancement of monsoon, sowing of Kharif rice will gain
momentum.
Sowing of Kharif
coarse cereals is also continuing. About 78 % of coarse cereals
area is sown in the Kharif season. The total area coverage reported
so far is 4.80 lakh hectares compared to 13.8 lakh hectares in
the corresponding period last year.
Kharif pulses account
for 48% of the total pulses area and about 37% of the total annual
production of pulses in the country. The area covered so far is
4.44 lakh hectares compared to 7.96 lakh hectares in the corresponding
period last year.
Sowing of sugarcane
is nearing completion. The area coverage so far is about 38.7
lakh hectares as compared to 38.9 lakh hectares in the corresponding
period last year. Some more area is expected to be covered in
the Peninsular India with the help of Monsoon rains.Sowing in
the largest sugarcane producing state of Uttar Pradesh is compete
and the normal area of 19 lakh hectares has been covered this
year.Overall sugarcane area is likely to be marginally less than
the normal which is about 42 lakh hectares.
The sowing of Jute
crop is complete. As per the latest reports form the states, the
area sown is 7.5 lakh hectares, at par with last year’s area sown
in the corresponding period. Area covered in West Bengal this
year is 5.7 lakh hectares which is almost at par with last year’s
sowing in the corresponding period. Acreage under Jute in West
Bengal is expected to be normal which is 6.1 lakh hectares.
Sowing of Cotton
is nearing completion in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan while it
is continuing in other parts of the country. As per the latest
reports from the states, the area sown under cotton so far is
13.61 lakh hectares against 12.25 lakh hectares reported last
year in the corresponding period.
Kharif Oilseeds account
for nearly 65% of the total Oilseed area and about 60% of the
total oilseed production in the country. Sowing of Groundnut,
Sesamum, Sunflower, Soyabean and Castor has commenced. The area
reported to be covered this year is 9.1 lakh hectares so far compared
to 20.2 lakh hectares covered last year in the corresponding period.
The incidence of
pest and diseases remained below the Economic Threshold Level
(ETL) generally for most of the crops.
The Central Water Commission monitors
the live storage of 71 important reservoirs having their Full
Reservoir Level (FRL) of 131.28 billion cubic meters (BCM) which
is about 79% of the total reservoir capacity in the country. The
total water storage as on the 20th of last month was
about 12% of FRL. During the week ending on the 20th
of last month, augmentation of storage in reservoirs was better
than the corresponding average increase of the last ten years.
