SOWING OF OILSEEDS, PULSES AND COARSE
CEREALS PICKS UP
With the Monsoon
covering central India, sowing of oilseeds, pulses and coarse
cereals has exceeded last year’s area coverage. The area covered
by oilseeds so far this year is 70.37 lakh hectares as against
42.8 lakh hectares during the corresponding period last year.
In pulses, sowing has been done in 36.2 lakh hectares compared
to 25.5 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year. The
area coverage of coarse cereals is 42.5 lakh hectares as against
36.5 lakh hectares during the same period last year. As regards
rice, sowing has been completed in 71.45 lakh hectares as compared
to 72.5 lakh hectares last year during the corresponding period.
In sugarcane, area coverage is 39.6 lakh hectares as compared
to 40.2 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year. In
cotton, sowing has been done in 41.7 lakh hectares as against
26.9 lakh hectares in the same period last year.
Monsoon has brought
about relief to people in the nine drought affected States. These
States are Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya
Pradesh,Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Almost
all these States have received moderate to heavy rainfall. The
situation in north interior Karnataka which reported deficient
rainfall, also improved significantly during the week ending 16th
of this month. As per the information available with the Agricultural
Ministry, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan have
discontinued relief operations. Up to the 14th of this
month, movement of 8 lakh tonnes of food grains was undertaken
to the drought-affected States as against 18.18 lakh tonnes planned
for the whole of July. These States have already utilized 59.92
lakh tonnes of foodgrains out of 84.36 lakh tonnes allotted to
them.
