Kharif sowing up 14%, paddy area rises 19%

By Sandip Das

Thanks to the monsoon rains in the ‘active’ phase in the last fortnight, sowing of kharif crops has picked up pace. At 37.87 million hectare (MH) or 35% of the normal sown area, the combined sown area of key crops – paddy, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton – was up 14% on year on Monday, according to data released by the agriculture ministry.

This to the largest extent would dispel fears of spurt in food inflation, which has been stickier than the headline inflation in recent months.

While the area under paddy, the most important kharif crop, was up 19% at 5.99 MH on year, sowing of pulses (55%) and oilseeds (54%) saw sharp spikes because of normal to above-normal monsoon rains in key growing states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Going by a five-year average, about 16% of paddy sowing has been completed so far. The kharif sowing activities will continue till the end of September.

Monsoon is currently in the active phase while the overall rainfall this season till Monday has been 2% above the benchmark – long period average. India Meteorological Department has stated that out of 36, 21 subdivisions have received normal rainfall during this period and still seven states mostly in the east are in the deficient zone.

Paddy was sown in 5.99 MH, against the normal sown area of 40.15 MH. Area under pulses such as tur, urad and moong rose sharply at 55% to 3.68 MH on year, which is expected to boost pulses production in the 2024-25 season.

More than 54% higher sown area in oilseeds – groundnut, soybean and sunflower is reported at 8.03 MH.

Officials said that higher oilseeds output in the current kharif season is expected to reduce the country’s dependence on edible oil imports. Currently, around 60% of the country’s annual consumption of edible oil of around 28 million tonne (MT) is met through imports of palm, soyabean and sunflower oils.

Sugarcane sowing has been completed so far with a total sown area of 5.68 MH, which is higher than normal sown area compared to the previous year. Cotton area is up 29% at 8.06 MH so far, which is 62% of the average area for the last five years.

The agriculture ministry has set a target of record food grains production of 340 MT during the 2024-25 crop year (July-June), 3.4% higher than 328.8 MT estimated during the previous crop year. This includes 159.97 MT from the kharif season, 164 MT from the rabi season and 16.43 MT from the summer season.

Nidhi Khare, secretary, ministry of consumer affairs, recently stated “we are expecting a good monsoon with more than average rainfall. We anticipate the area under pulses to improve significantly. Farmers will put more area under crops considering high market prices. Market sentiments will also improve,”.

Retail inflation in the pulses and products category rose to 17.14% in May on year, while the arhar variety reported the highest price rise of 32.1%. To prevent hoarding and curb price rise in pulses, the government last week had imposed stock holding limits on tur and chana till September 30.

This article has been republished from The Financial Express.