Latest News | Paddy Sowing Area Down 4.95 Pc So Far This Kharif Season

New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) The area under coverage for the paddy crop has declined by 4.95 per cent to 393.79 lakh hectare in the ongoing kharif season so far due to poor rains in some states, according to the agriculture ministry data released on Friday.

Paddy was sown in 414.31 lakh hectares (LH) in the year-ago period, the data showed.

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Paddy is the main kharif crop and its sowing begins with the onset of the southwest monsoon in June and harvesting from October onwards.

"About 393.79 lakh hectares area coverage under rice has been reported compared to the corresponding period of last year (414.31 lakh hectares). Thus 20.52 lakh hectare less area has been covered compared to last year," an official statement said.

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The data reflects the position as of September 9.

Higher paddy sowing area has been reported mainly from Telangana (5.34 LH), Haryana (0.94 LH), Gujarat (0.57 LH), Rajasthan (0.34 LH) and Maharashtra (0.21 LH).

However, paddy acreage has declined in Jharkhand (9.37 LH), Madhya Pradesh (6.32 LH), West Bengal (3.90 LH), Chhattisgarh (2.60 LH), Uttar Pradesh (2.47 LH), Bihar (2 LH), Odisha (0.48 LH), Andhra Pradesh (0.27 LH), Tripura (0.22 LH), Nagaland (0.21 LH), Meghalaya (0.18 LH), Karnataka (0.14 LH), Punjab (0.12 LH), Assam (0.09 LH), Goa (0.03 LH) and Mizoram (0.03 LH).

Apart from paddy, there was a marginal decline in coverage of pulses with 130.91 LH covered so far this kharif season against 136.57 LH in the year-ago period.

Oilseeds coverage too was lagging as the area coverage was down marginally at 189.74 LH till September 9 of this Kharif season as against 190.92 LH a year ago.

However, in the case of coarse-cum-nutri cereals, the sowing was slightly up at 180.44 LH as against 172.71 LH.

Among cash crops, cotton acreage remained up at 126.66 LH against 118 LH in the year-ago period.

Sugarcane area was slightly higher at 55.65 lakh ha from over the year-ago period.

Jute/mesta area remained flat at 6.95 lakh ha so far in the ongoing kharif season, the data showed.

The total area under coverage for all Kharif crops stood at 1,084.15 LH as on September 9 compared to 1,094.17 LH a year ago.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)