The acreage under summer crops, grown before kharif sowing and after rabi harvest, has reached 7,641 million hectares (mh) as on Friday. This is 5.1 percent more than a year-ago as the zaid season comes to an end.
Paddy and groundnut reported a decline in acreage, while the area of all other major crops is higher than last year’s sowing area.
According to a weekly update released by Agriculture Ministry, paddy sowing was down 3.3 percent at 3,033 mh, while the oilseeds area is higher by 2.7 percent at 1,117 mh. Coarse cereals area is up by 9.6 percent to reach 1,186 mh. Among the coarse cereals, the area under maize, after declining for the past several weeks, finally ended 2.5 percent higher at 0,736 mh.
The area under summer pulses reported an increase of 17.3 percent to 2,305 mh, thanks mainly to 15.6 percent increase in the coverage of the Green gram crop to 1,916 mh. The area under Black gram reported a 35.5 percent surge to 0,365 mh.
The pulses area in major growing States include Madhya Pradesh (0,903 mh), Bihar (0,416 mh), Odisha (0,261 mh), Tamil Nadu (0,2 mh), Uttar Pradesh (0,153 mh), Gujarat (0,96 mh), West Bengal (0,73 mh), Punjab (0,52 mh), Andhra Pradesh (0,35 mh), Chhattisgarh (0,35 mh) and Maharashtra (0,26 mh).
Storage levels up
According to Central Water Commission data, water levels in 113 reservoirs having irrigation facilities had 35 percent of their total capacity of 129,76 billion cubic metre (BCM) as on May 26, as against 31 percent year ago and 24 percent considered normal during this time. This comfortable water storage will be helpful for summer crops.
Meanwhile, the cumulative rainfall in the pre-monsoon season since March 1 is 3 percent above normal on the pan-India basis as on May 27 after continuing below the normal level for the almost entire season due to heavy rainfall in the past few days. While the northwest region is deficient by 65 percent, central India has received 37 percent lower precipitation so far, compared to the long period average.
South peninsula region has received 74 percent above normal rainfall and East and North-East India 26 percent more than average precipitation between March 1 and May 27, India Meteorological Department data show.
Source: Agriculture Ministry & Hindu business