Crop planting gathers pace as monsoon advances

NEW DELHI: Key agricultural areas in northern and central India have received heavy showers this time, preparing the ground for more crop planting and a good kharif harvest after two years of drought.
Crop planting has gathered pace in the region after the monsoon rapidly advanced to northern India and covered the entire country last week. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) expects good rainfall to continue this season although there would be a temporary weakening of the monsoon current in central India this week.

Increased rainfall has helped farmers increase sowing of crops by 38% last week, with the biggest increase coming in are under pulses. Pulses acreage jumped 55 per cent in a week, and is now 39 per cent higher than last year despite the late arrival of the monsoon this year.

Good rainfall in the fertile region continued during the weekend with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana getting double the normal rainfall on Saturday and even higher precipitation on Sunday. Total rainfall in northern and northwestern India this season is 9 per cent above normal, rising rapidly from being 6 per cent above normal on Saturday.

The agicultural meteorology division of the weather office has advised farmers to continue transplanting of paddy in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, a key oilseed growing region, it has cautioned farmers that excessive rainfall and waterlogging may hurt the soybean crop in Indore, Ujjain, Satna and Hoshangabad, but on the whole the situation is promising, officials said. Rainfall in northern India was twice of normal, which has given adequate soil moisture without any waterlogging in the fields. "Every part of northern India has received normal rainfall this season. This is a big improvement over the last two years," a weather scientist said. Traders said that output of pulses is likely to increase significantly, although this may come at the cost of other crops including oilseeds.

Area under soybean cultivation has declined in parts of Madhya Pradesh, a key producer. According to the Soybean Processors Association of India, area under the crop may decrease 8 per cent this year as many farmers have shifted to pulses, maize, red gram, sorghum and paddy because of low productivity of soybean in the last few years and higher returns from pulses after the sharp increase in prices in the last year.