Kharif sowing gap narrows, but acreage remains below year-ago level

New Delhi: Kharif sowing continued to trail last year's pace, with farmers planting crops across 78.7 million hectares as of 24 July, compared with 82.6 million hectares during the same period a year earlier, according to agriculture ministry data.

Acreage of key kharif crops, including paddy, pulses, oilseeds and cotton, remained below last year's levels, although the overall sowing gap has narrowed in recent weeks as monsoon rainfall improved across several regions.

Among major crops, paddy acreage stood at 23.4 million hectares, down by 619,000 hectares from a year ago. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana lagged in sowing area. Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh reported higher acreage.

Oilseeds were also behind last year's level at 16.3 million hectares, down by 345,000 hectares from last year, led by lower soybean and groundnut acreage. Soybean acreage lagged by 359,000 hectares, while groundnut was lower by 58,000 hectares.

Area under Shri Anna (coarse cereals) stood at 14.2 million hectares, 1.9 million hectares below the last year, led by lower sowing of bajra and maize. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Haryana, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

Pulses decline

Total pulses acreage declined to 8.4 million hectares, 690,000 hectares below last year. Arhar sowing fell 410,000 hectares, moongbean by 150,000 hectares, and mothbean by 260,000 hectares. Urdbean, however, witnessed an increase in area by 139,000 hectares, with the total area touching 1.86 million hectares.

The major states with less area are Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Higher area noticed in Uttar Pradesh, ,Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and TamilNadu.

Sugarcane was among the few crops to post an increase, with acreage rising to 5.7 million hectares, 86,000 hectares above last year's area. Cotton sowing area stood at 9.8 million hectares, 399,000 hectares below the last year.

The overall sowing gap has narrowed in recent weeks as monsoon rainfall improved across several regions, although uneven precipitation continues to weigh on planting in parts of eastern and central India.

"The latest kharif sowing data points to a gradual recovery in the season, but the pace of recovery is not very uniform across crops," said M.K Dhanuka, chairman, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd, a agro chemical manufacturing company. “While rice and oilseeds have shown encouraging progress, pulses and coarse cereals continue to lag, reflecting continued regional differences in field conditions.”

The emphasis should move beyond acreage alone, he said. The quality of crop establishment over the next few weeks will have a greater bearing on productivity than incremental gains in sown area.

Agriculture experts expect sowing to pick up if monsoon activity intensifies in the coming weeks.

Cumulative monsoon rainfall between 1 June and 22 July was 19% below normal, with the east and northeast recording the largest deficit at 32%, followed by the south peninsula (26%), northwest India (13%) and central India (9%).

The India Meteorological Department has forecast below-normal rainfall in July, at less than 94% of the long-period average (LPA). The forecast came after the country saw the driest June in more than a decade—and the fifth-driest since records began in 1901—with southwest monsoon rainfall 39.8% below the LPA. India received 99.5 mm of rainfall during the month, against the normal 165.3 mm.