Area under oilseeds and paddy up as summer acreage increases by 22%

Paddy, oilseeds, and coarse cereals continue to acquire acreage as farmers in the country cultivate more land in these crops for the current summer cropping season. Summer acreages have increased by 7.94 lakh hectares, or 22%, to 39.58 lakh ha as of March 5 compared to 32.34 lakh ha in the same duration last year.

So far, the overall pattern in summer sowing growth has been very strong, as per the Agriculture Ministry. Paddy has been cultivated on 29.92 lakh hectares (23.38 lakh hectares), up 6.54 lakh hectares or 28%.

The area planted with oilseeds has risen to 3.56 lakh ha, up 0.69 lakh ha from the same time last year when it was 2.87 lakh ha. At 3.87 lakh ha, coarse cereals such as jowar and maize also saw a modest rise (3.82 lakh ha).

Conversely, at 2.23 lakh ha, the area under pulses is slightly smaller (2.28 lakh ha). The area under black gram has increased slightly, while the area under moong has decreased. From January 1 to March 3, the world as a whole recorded 32% less rainfall than normal.

As per the Central Water Commission, live water stored in 130 reservoirs throughout the country was 90% of the live storage in the same timeframe last year and 125 percent of the storage averaged over the previous ten years as of March 4.