Farmers happy with this year’s Kharif sowing, says Gujarat agri minister

“A total of 119 talukas have received more than 125 mm of rain and 92 talukas have received between 51-125 mm of rainfall and in 40 talukas 50 mm of rainfall has been received. There is a rain forecast for next five days and I believe that it will cover areas that are yet to receive enough rain needed for the sowing process to begin,” he added.

According to the agriculture department, as on July 4, 2022, 35 per cent of the area (30,20,616 hectares) has been covered by farmers during the current Kharif 2022 season.

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However this area is 25 per cent less than 40,53,932 hectares sown during the same period in 2021.The area already sown includes 15.56 lakh hectares of cotton and 10.14 lakh hectares of groundnut.

Of the total area sown in Gujarat till July 4, 22.9 lakh hectares is in Saurashtra alone. Farmers in North Gujarat have covered only 3.25 lakh hectares, while those in Central and South Gujarat have covered 2.06 lakh hectares and 1.18 lakh hectares, respectively.

Quoting Skymet, the minister said Gujarat will receive 104 per cent rain this monsoon. According to the India Meteorological Department, Gujarat has received 136 mm rainfall till July 6. This is 13 percent less than the normal rainfall.

While the deficit in Saurashtra region — where most of the sowing has taken place —the deficit is between 36 to 3 percent in some of the districts.

In other parts of Gujarat the rainfall deficit ranges between 77 to 7 percent, with districts like Tapi, Panchmahal, Gandhinagar, Dahod, Chotta Udepur and Ahmedabad having deficits of more than 50 percent.