SOWING OF MAJOR KHARIF CROPS

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The rainfall so far has adequately covered most parts of the country. A review by the Crop Weather Watch Group of the Agriculture Ministry shows that this has facilitated normal to good sowing of major kharif crops. The area progression reported on the 15^th of this month as compared to the corresponding period last year is summarized in the table below:-

(area in lakh ha.)

Area sown reported % of normal area covered

Crop	Normal area	This year	last year	This year	Last year
Rice	406	349	307	86.0	75.6
Bajra	94	90	66	95.7	70.2
Kharif Jowar	47	42	38	89.4	80.9
Kharif Maize	59	69	60	116.9	101.7
KharifCoarse Cereals	231	226	185	97.8	80.1
Kharif Groundnut	57	53	53	93.0	93.0
Soyabean	63	69	57	109.5	90.5
Total Kharif Oilseeds	154	152	136	98.7	88.3
Tur	35	37	34	105.7	97.1
Total Kharif Pulses	104	122	99	117.3	95.2
Cotton	88	74	70	84.1	79.5
Jute	9	8	8	88.1	90.0
Sugarcane	43	41	44	95.3	102.3

With the help of normal to excess rains in most parts of the country, recharging of reservoirs is continuing. As on the 12^th of this month, water in 70 major reservoirs went up to 75.74 billion cubic meters(BCM). The Central Water Commission monitors the live storage of 71 important reservoirs having the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 131.28 BCM which is about 79% of the total reservoir capacity in the country. The present total water storage in these reservoirs is about 58% of the FRL. This is 111 % of last year’s level and 81% of last 10 years’ average.

No gregarious locust activity has been noticed during the surveys conducted by the Locust Warning Organisation in various localities of the Scheduled Desert Area of Gujarat and Rajasthan. There is no report of shortage of any commonly used chemical pesticides or biopoesticides in the country. The incidence of pest and diseases remained below the economic threshold level generally for most of the crops.