The Hindu : Shortfall in rabi sowing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 22, 2002

National

National

Shortfall in rabi sowing

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Dec. 21. A depressive kharif season due to drought and low soil moisture has affected rabi sowing in parts of the country. Sowing so far of rabi wheat, coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds has shown shortfall over last year.

There is likely to be a shift in the cropping pattern in some severely-hit States, including Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Wheat, the major rabi crop, has been hit in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar, where sowing is below last year's level, although it is at par in Punjab and Haryana.

The total area coverage of wheat reported so far is 142.82 lakh hectares against 160.82 lakh hectares covered last year in the corresponding period.

The normal area of wheat is about 267 lakh hectares which is about 56 per cent of area under rabi foodgrains.

Besides, due to severe rainfall deficiency in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, there has been shortfall in rabi sowing and likely to be a shift in the cropping pattern in these States.

This was noted by the Crop Weather Group in the Ministry of Agriculture in its meeting here on Monday.

The season commenced with a cautious note of available residual moisture due to the late monsoon rains and less than comfortable water availability in reservoirs in certain regions.

The area reported so far under coarse cereals is about 62.98 lakh hectares which is lagging by about 5 lakh hectares from last year's coverage in the corresponding period. Rabi jowar sowing is less by about 6 lakh hectares from last year's coverage, mostly due to shortfall in sowing in Maharashtra.

The normal area under rabi pulses is about 113 lakh hectares.

Although sowing is on and the area reported to be sown so far is about 81.9 lakh hectares it is lagging by about 15 lakh hectares from last year.

Sowing is lagging in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while it is ahead in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Sowing of gram, which forms 58 per cent of the rabi pulses was continuing but the area covered so far is 47.3 lakh hectares, which is less by about 14 lakh hectares from last year's coverage mainly due to lagging in area coverage in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The area reported under oilseeds this year so far is about 60.1 lakh hectares, short by about 10 lakh hectares compared to last year's coverage in the corresponding period, mainly due to less area coverage under rapeseed and mustard in Rajasthan and to a lesser extent in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The normal area under rabi rice is about 41 lakh hectares of which West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh account for 2/3rd of the area which is mostly irrigated.

Sowing of rabi rice is continuing in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka while it has started in West Bengal.

Area coverage reported so far under rabi rice is 2.5 lakh hectares.

Rainfall during October was normal to excess in most part of the southern peninsula (i.e. Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh) thus improving the soil moisture, ground water resources, and availability of water in the irrigation sources.

This is facilitating normal to good sowing of rabi in these States, except in Andhra Pradesh where deficient monsoon rainfall (45.7 cm rainfall against the normal of 61.2 cm) has resulted in low water availability in major reservoirs of the State.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National