Total sowing area swells to 109.23 million hectares. Bumper harvest on the cards?

New Delhi: Improved distribution of monsoon rainfall over the past fortnight has caused the total sowing area to touch 109.23 million hectares as of 6 September, up 2.16% from 106.92 million hectares a year ago, data from the ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare showed on Monday. Of the normal sowing area of 109.58 million hectares, 99.86% had been sown by 6 September.

‘Normal sowing area’ refers to the average sowing area of a crop from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

The sowing area of paddy to exceed the normal of 40.15 million hectares by 2% to 40.95 million hectares as of 6 September. The paddy sowing area is also up 4.06% from 39.35 million hectares last year, data showed. 

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Sowing of coarse cereals, or Shree Anna, also exceeded the normal area of 18.08 million hectares by 4.37%, coming in at 18.87 million hectares as of 6 September. This was also 3.85% higher than the 18.17-million-hectare sowing area at the same point last year.

The sowing area of pulses grew 7.58% to 12.62 million hectares this year from 11.73 million hectares last year. Tur (arhar) dal alone accounted for 4.57 million hectares.

What this means

The increase in sowing areas is a promising sign for the agriculture sector and the government's efforts to boost farm productivity, especially as the data shows a broad increase across various crops. This could potentially lead to a decrease in prices of this essential source of protein, assuming a good harvest.

It largely alleviates concerns about a surge in food inflation, which has been more persistent than headline inflation in recent months. India’s food inflation fell to a 13-month low of 5.42% in July after staying above 7% for eight consecutive months.

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The bumper sowing has also strengthened confidence among policymakers, as kharif production constitutes about 60% of India's total foodgrains output.

Underperformers

The oilseed cultivation area increased modestly to 19.24 million hectares from 18.94 million hectares last year, while the sugarcane cultivation area remained stagnant at 5.76 million hectares compared with 5.71 million hectares last year.

Not all crops showed positive trends. The sowing area of jute and mesta fell to 571,000 hectares from 666,000 hectares, and cotton cultivation declined to 11.21 million hectares from 12.33 million hectares.

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“The sowing trend indicates that the production of kharif crops, including oilseeds, is expected to be huge. While the excessive rainfall predicted by national forecasters for September could be a cause for concern, overall production of all crops is likely to be better this time,” said Dr Anand Vishwakarma, project coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Sesame and Niger, Jabalpur.