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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Good monsoon spells good news for kharif, sown area up 62% from last year -Amit Bhattacharya & Vishwa Mohan

Good monsoon spells good news for kharif, sown area up 62% from last year -Amit Bhattacharya & Vishwa Mohan

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published Published on Jul 20, 2015   modified Modified on Jul 20, 2015
-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Backed by better monsoon rains so far as compared to the same period in 2014, the kharif (summer crop) sowing operation has picked up substantially in the last three weeks. The sown area touched 563 lakh hectares as on Friday which is nearly 62% more than what the country had reported at this time last year.

The fast pace of sowing raised hopes that the total sown area could touch the level reached in 2013, when a good monsoon had led to 6% more rainfall than normal.

The total area under kharif crops was 966.25 lakh hectares last year, a significant drop from the 998 lakh hectares achieved in 2013. The poor sowing was mainly due to a weak monsoon, with rains ending 12% below normal, which eventually resulted in 5.25% less grain production during 2014-15 as compared to 2013-14.

The sowing trend so far points to a better kharif crop this year, although the output would also depend on how rains perform in the rest of the season till September. Kharif sowing will continue for another 40 days or so.

Interestingly, sown areas under oilseeds and coarse cereals have shown a massive jump. While the area under paddy this year so far is 132.11 lakh hectares as compared to 126.55 lakh hectares during corresponding period last year, the area under oilseeds is 127.12 lakh hectares this year as compared to 38.07 lakh hectares at this time in 2014. Similarly, the area under coarse cereals has also recorded a big jump due to good rainfall in June.

Monsoon's output so far has been far better than the corresponding period last year. Exactly this day last year (July 17), the monsoon had just advanced over the entire country, two days later than the normal date. This year, monsoon covered the country on June 26, almost three weeks earlier than normal.

Besides reasonably good rains till now, the fast and well dispersed kharif sowing can also be attributed to a number of contingency measures to insulate the summer crop season from the vagaries of the monsoon. These measures, taken apprehending below normal rainfall in as many as 580 districts across the country, include seed subsidy and constant sharing of scientific inputs based on amount as well as spatial distribution of rainfall.

Rainfall till Friday has been 93% of normal. Till the same date last year, the rain output was just 65% of normal. Rains had picked up in the second half of July and the season ended with a 12% deficit -- which still meant it was a drought year.

Distribution of rainfall across the country too has been better this year. Although rain deficit has been growing along the western coast, Gujarat, interior Maharashtra and Rayalaseema, most of these regions had received spells of rain in June.

The major difference between this year and 2014 is the rain bounty that the grain-bowl states of north India have received so far. Rains have been 14% above normal in northwest India. This along with the wet spell the region witnessed last week has obviously aided sowing activity.

Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh had last year received just close to 50% of normal rainfall through the season and ended up among the worst drought-hit regions in the country.


The Times of India, 20 July, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Good-monsoon-spells-good-news-for-kharif-sown-area-up-62-from-last-year/articleshow/48138849.cms


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