Paddy sowing down by 5.62 percent so far this kharif season

New Delhi: Area under the paddy crop has been down by 5.62 per cent at 383.99 lakh hectare in the ongoing kharif season so far due to poor rains in some states, according to the agriculture ministry data released on Friday.

Paddy was sown in 406.89 lakh hectares in the year-ago period, the data showed.

Paddy is the main kharif crop and its sowing begins with the onset of the southwest monsoon from June and harvesting from October onwards.

There was a huge lag in paddy sowing in the states of Jharkhand (9.80 lakh ha), Madhya Pradesh (6.32 lakh ha), West Bengal (4.45 lakh ha), Chhattisgarh (3.91 lakh ha), Uttar Pradesh (2.61 lakh ha), and Bihar (2.18 lakh ha) so far this kharif season.

The lag in paddy sowing was not significant in states of Odisha (0.84 lakh ha), Andhra Pradesh (0.31 lakh ha), Assam (0.29 lakh ha), Meghalaya (0.21 lakh ha), Punjab (0.12 lakh ha), Jammu and Kashmir (0.05 lakh ha), Mizoram (0.03 lakh ha), Sikkim (0.02 lakh ha) and Tripura (0.01 lakh ha) in the said period.

Besides paddy, there was marginal decline in coverage of pulses with 129.55 lakh hectare covered so far this kharif season against 135.46 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.

Tur/arhar area was down marginally at 44.86 lakh ha as against 47.56 lakh ha, while that of urad acreage was lagging slightly at 36.62 lakh ha as against 38.18 lakh ha in the comparable period.

Oilseeds coverage too was lagging behind as the area coverage was down marginally at 188.51 lakh ha till September 2 of this kharif season as against 189.66 lakh ha in the year-ago period.

However in case of coarse-cum-nutri cereals, the sowing was slightly up at 178.96 lakh ha as against 171.62 lakh ha in the said period.

Among cash crops, cotton acreage remained up at 125.69 lakh ha, and sugarcane area was slightly higher at 55.65 lakh ha from over the year-ago period. Jute/mesta area remained flat at 6.95 lakh ha so far in the ongoing kharif season, the data showed.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the country has received 6 per cent higher southwest monsoon rains during June-August period. However east and north eastern parts of of the country have reported 19 per cent deficient rainfall in the same period.

Monthly rainfall during September over the country as a whole is most likely to be above normal, it said.