Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 18 Area covered under all major kharif crops, barring rice and soyabean, continue to lag behind last year’s levels, notwithstanding a revival of the south-west monsoon since the last week of July.

The Agriculture Ministry’s latest data on sowing progress, released here on Monday, shows total area covered under coarse cereals so far this year at 171.1 lakh hectares (lh), which is below last year’s corresponding 194.1 lh. Within coarse cereals, there has been a fall in bajra (76.1 to 67.4), maize (69.8 to 63.1) and jowar (31.1 to 26.4).

Planting of pulses, too, are lower (89.8 lh versus 105.7 lh), which includes arhar (from 33.8 to 29.5), urad (from 23.2 to 18.6) and moong (29.3 to 21.9). In the case of oilseeds, the overall progressive acreage has fallen marginally from 164.5 lh to 163.9 lh, with groundnut declining (50 to 48.1) and soybean gaining (86 to 92.8).

Farmers have also planted lesser area so far under other commercial crops, such as cotton (85.9 lh versus 90.7lh), sugarcane (44.1 versus 53) and jute (7.4 versus 8.3).

The real good news so far has been in respect of rice, which has so far witnessed a higher coverage of 282.1 lh, against last year’s corresponding acreage of 256.4 lh.

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