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Kharif crop sowing is at its advanced stage with farmers in India having sown crops across 1,031.56 lakh hectares so far this year as against 1,010.52 lakh hectares in the same period last year.
On a yearly basis, the sowing is about 2.1 per cent higher, according to the latest data from Agriculture Ministry. Commodity-wise, paddy, pulses, oilseeds, millets, and sugarcane sowing have been higher year-on-year. Sowing for cotton and jute/mesta has, on the other side, was on the lower side. In the pulses basket, arhar and moong were higher, while urad, kulthi, and moth bean were lower. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently said that the central government is committed to having 100 per cent procurement for urad, arhar, and masur in all the states as he called for generating awareness on the issue so that more and more farmers come forward for pulse cultivation. India is a large consumer and grower of pulses and it meets a portion of its consumption needs through imports. India primarily consumes chana, masur, urad, kabuli chana, and tur pulses. The government is giving a lot of thrust to cultivation of pulses. The Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare has released the progress of area coverage under kharif crops as of August 16, 2024: India has three cropping seasons -- Summer, Kharif, and Rabi. Crops that are sown during October and November and the produce harvested from January depending on maturity are Rabi. Crops sown during June-July and dependent on monsoon rains are harvested in October-November are kharif. Crops produced between Rabi and Kharif are Summer crops. Traditionally, Indian agriculture (especially the Kharif area/output) is heavily reliant on the progression of monsoon rainfall. IMD in its first long-range forecast has stated the southwest monsoon (June-September) this year is expected to be above normal. Skymet, a private forecaster, has also predicted a normal monsoon this year. (ANI)
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