Active Stocks
Tue Mar 19 2024 09:41:05
  1. Tata Consultancy Services share price
  2. 4,046.00 -2.38%
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 151.30 1.14%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,444.20 -0.14%
  1. NTPC share price
  2. 313.00 -1.31%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 263.50 -0.57%
Business News/ Industry / Agriculture/  Sowing picks up as monsoon revives in July
BackBack

Sowing picks up as monsoon revives in July

An area of 70.6 million hectares was sown under different crops till 1 Aug, up from 53.3 million hectares a week before

Cropwise, area sown under coarse cereals shows a decline of 26%, while the decline is 7% for rice, 15.5% for pulses, 20.7% for oilseeds and 3.4% for cotton. Photo: MintPremium
Cropwise, area sown under coarse cereals shows a decline of 26%, while the decline is 7% for rice, 15.5% for pulses, 20.7% for oilseeds and 3.4% for cotton. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: India’s July rain deficit narrowed to 10% of the long-term average for the month, marking a recovery from the driest June in five years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, as kharif crop sowing picked up in tandem.

An area of 70.6 million hectares was sown under different crops till 1 August, up from 53.3 million hectare a week before. Sowing so far is 14% less than last year’s figure—an area of 81.9 million hectares was sown by this time last year—but only marginally lower than the 73.4 million hectares sown in 2012.

The June rain deficit was 43% of the long-term average for the month. However, even though the monsoon rains gathered pace after mid-June, over half the country has recorded deficient rainfall this season.

“After the poor rainfall in June, we were anticipating poor sowing. Over the past few weeks many of the drier states received good rainfall, so there is substantial improvement in sowing of kharif seeds across the country by end of July," said N. Chattopadhyay, deputy director general, agricultural meteorology division, at IMD in Pune.

Retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index, slowed to a record in June and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) decelerated to a four-month low the same month, but there have been worries that sub-par rainfall could cause prices to rise again and deter the central bank from lowering interest rates to boost economic growth that slumped to sub-5% levels for two consecutive years.

Although the monsoon has shown signs of picking up, it does not necessarily mean a boost to agricultural production, one economist warned.

“The overall amount of rainfall is not as important as when it comes and how distributed it is," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings.

“The delay in monsoon in certain parts of the country has already affected many crops. Agriculture ministry data shows that area under cultivation of major crops like rice and pulses is much lower as compared to last year. This shortfall will exert pressure on food inflation in the coming months."

Cropwise, the area sown under coarse cereals showed a decline of 26%, while the decline is 7% for rice, 15.5% for pulses, 20.7% for oilseeds and 3.4% for cotton.

The delayed and weak rainfall led experts at the agricultural division of IMD and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute to advise farmers to grow short-duration crops and practise intercropping rather than grow single crops. “While these crops are not the high-yielding variety, they are the better option right now," said Chattopadhyay.

Rainfall picked up from 11 July, he said, ahead of the 15 July benchmark for monsoon rainfall. “Contingency crops, medium duration crops and intercropping have led to improvement in sowing."

“Of course, there are some areas in Rayalaseema, Karnataka and Rajasthan, where farmers could not sow due to very poor rainfall. There the damage has been done," Chattopadhyay said, adding that sugarcane farms are doing well while cotton farmers have been told to grow medium duration desi cotton rather than BT cotton.

Monsoon will be normal over most parts of the country for the next 10-15 days, according to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. It said the rains will move toward central India in the first week of August but with weaker amplitude. While central, east, northeast and north India have shown recovery this month with showers shrinking the rainfall deficit, north-west India still has a 34% deficit.

Even after the improvement, the monsoon rainfall at the end of July was more deficient—at 22% of the average—than in the last five years. In 2009 and 2012, two of the driest years recently, the monsoon deficit at the end of July was 19% of the average.

“There has been improvement in rainfall in July. We expect rainfall in August to be 96% of the long period average as we had forecast before. Normal rainfall is expected in August," said Sivanand Pai, head of the long-range forecasting division at IMD, Pune.

Meanwhile, El Niño has shown signs of weakening, said the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, which has scaled down its ‘El Niño Alert’ to ‘El Niño Watch’ due to a cooling of some parts of the Pacific Ocean. El Niño is an abnormal weather phenomenon caused by thof the Pacific Ocean temperatures, which can lead to sub-par rainfall or even drought in Asia.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that while subsurface temperatures increased from January to March, these have weakened since April, implying that the El Niño is not likely to be strong. IMD said that there is now a 50% chance of El Niño developing during the monsoon, but NOAA maintains that the chance of El Niño developing is about 70% during the corresponding Northern Hemisphere summer.

Sayantan Bera and Remya Nair contributed to this story.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 01 Aug 2014, 10:09 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Agriculture Stocks
₹197.252.41%
₹658.55-0.43%
₹63.67-0.58%
₹1,613.90.49%
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App