SOWING OF KHARIF RICE, COARSE CEREALS
AND OIL-SEEDS IN PROGRESS
With the Monsoon covering the peninsular
India and the North East, sowing of Kharif rice is in progress.
The Crop Weather Watch Group(CWWG) of the Agriculture Ministry
has reported that the total area coverage so far is.8.04 lakh
hectares compared to 10.89 lakh hectares during the corresponding
period last year. The normal area under Kharif rice is about 406
lakh hectares. Major Kharif Rice growing States(with respective
normal area in lakh hectares) are Uttar Pradesh(59.3), Orissa(42.1),
West Bengal(43.9), Bihar(44.6), Chhattisgarh(36), Andhra Pradesh(28.9),
Assam(23), Punjab(26), Tamil Nadu(19.3) and Madhya Pradesh(16.7).
Sowing of Kharif
coarse cereals is also going on. Important Kharif coarse cereals
( with their respective
normal area in lakh hectares) are Bajra (93), Jowar (49), Maize
(58), and others (32). About 78% of Coarse Cereals area is sown
in the Kharif season.
Sowing of sugar
cane is nearing completion. Area coverage so far is about 35.6
lakh hectares as compared to 35.1 lakh hectares covered in the
corresponding period last year. Some more area is expected to
be covered in Peninsular India with the help of Monsoon rains.
Sowing in Tamil Nadu is lagging behind by about 50 thousand hectares
from last year’s acreage in the corresponding period. Overall
sugarcane area is likely to be marginally less than the normal.
Acreage increase in the largest sugarcane producing state of Uttar
Pradesh is about 60 thousand hectares from last year’s acreage
in the corresponding period. Uttar Pradesh, Maharasthra, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are major sugarcane producing states
with respective normal areas of 19, 5.7, 3.8, 3.1 and 2.2 lakh
hectares..
Sowing of cotton
is near completion in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana
and Madhya Pradesh are major cotton producing States with respective
normal area of 31.8,16, 11.1, 5.8, 5.8, 5, 5.6 and 5 lakh hectares.
Normal area under cotton is about 89 lakh hectares. As per the
latest reports from the States, area sown under cotton so far
is 9.29 lakh hectares against 9.34 lakh hectares reported to be
covered last year in the corresponding period.
Kharif Oilseeds
account for nearly 65% of the total oilseeds area and about 60%
of the total oilseeds production in the country. Important Kharif
Oilseeds (with their respective normal area in hectares) are Groundnut
(58.2), Soyabean (63.8), Sesamum (16.4), Sunflower (5.8), Niger
(4.9) and Castor(8.5). Sowing of Groundnut, Sesamum, Sunflower,
Soyabean and Castor is in progress.
The Central Water
Commission monitors the live storage of 71 important reservoirs.
Their Full Reservoir Level (FRL) is 131.71 billion cubic meters
(BCM) which is about 79% of the total reservoir capacity in the
country. The total water storage as per information received on
the 13th of this month was about 10% of the FRL. This
was 91% of last year’s level and 63% of the last 10 years’ average.
17 reservoirs are having no utilizable water.
