Sowing of paddy, oil seeds yet to pick up, farmers pin hope on July showers

The revival of the monsoon has seen farmers preparing to make the best of the situation, as sowing activities across the country are likely to pick up. According to the data of area coverage till last Friday, the country has reported sowing in over 406.66 lakh hectares of area as against the 448.23 lakh hectares in the same period in 2021. With rains battering most parts of the country in July, sowing is expected to significantly increase in the days to come.

Sowing of crops such as paddy and oilseeds etc is yet to pick up across the country.  The poor monsoon in June may affect the rice production with paddy, which was sown in over 95 lakh hectares (lh) as on July 8, 2021, has come down to over 72.24 lh this year. The year-on-year sowing of oilseeds (97.56/77.80) lh has also reported a significant decline. Crops such as pulses (46.10/46.10) lh and coarse cereals (65.31/64.36)lh have reported equal or increased year-on-year sowing. However, cotton growers have almost caught up with last year’s sowing with the country reporting 84.60 lh as compared to 84.70 lh sowing of last year.

After a dry June, the wet weather in July has sent positive signals to the farming sector. Since the start of July the country has reported excess rainfall. Thus by July 10, the country has received 261.3 mm of rain, an excess of 5 per cent as compared to the normal rainfall of 248.3 mm. The trend is more or less the same across the country, barring some parts of North and North-East India.

 An almost dry June is expected to hit pulses like moong and urad the most as their sowing window is expected to end by June. However, moong has seen sowing over 16 lh as compared to 11lh of last year. Urad has seen a slight decrease in sowing with farmers taking the crop over 7.47 lh which last year was 8.33 lh. Tur, a major kharif pulse, has reported sowing in over 16.58 lh as against last year’s 23.22 lh. As the sowing window of the tur is still open, the acreage is expected to grow. But due to price concerns, overall pulses acreage is expected to drop in favour of oilseeds and cotton.