Alarm bells ring as paddy sowing down 25,oilseeds 50

Deficient rainfall in many parts of the country has started showing stress on the progress of sowing of kharif crops.

3 min readNew DelhiJul 8, 2009 09:10 AM IST First published on: Jul 8, 2009 at 09:10 AM IST

Deficient rainfall in many parts of the country has started showing stress on the progress of sowing of kharif crops. As of the first week of July,the sowing of paddy,the major food grain crop of the season,was down by about 25 per cent compared to last year,according to latest figures released by the Ministry of Agriculture. Sowing of oilseeds was down by almost 50 per cent.

The Met has predicted good rains in most parts of the country in the coming week and that seems to be the last glimmer of hope for farmers to salvage their crops. Until July 2,the country received 43 per cent less rainfall than normal. The kharif sowing window has already crossed its half-way mark and any delay beyond July 15 has the potential to severely upset production estimates.