India to Witness Significant Drop in Kharif Crop Output: Experts

The area under cultivation of Kharif crops like rice, urad, and tur is down by an average of 52.98% from last year, so according to experts, this year, the output of these crops could be significantly lower.

This came as a warning by experts at the end of the sowing season as unpredictable rainfall has also caused crop damage in several areas.

Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA said that the lag in Kharif sowing may be difficult to make up in the second half of the season, so we can expect Kharif land to last year sown area.

Reducing the scope of a pickup in sowing is the problem that comes under the purview of labour shortage, as farm hands have moved to the urban centers with the revival of labour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing and construction.

Data on the agriculture ministry's National Food Security Mission website says there is a 52.98% deficient in sowing area, from 99.73 million hectares in 2021 to 46.897 million hectares as of August 12.

The drop in cultivation land under rice as of August 5 was 13%. A similar drop is being observed in the case of tur which was 11.67% as of August 12, while that for urad was 4.57%.

The underperformance in the sowing of rice is mainly on account of rainfall deficit in the major states that produce rice, such as Gangetic West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. According to the data present on the Indian Meteorological department’s website, rainfall deficit in east and west Uttar Pradesh is 47% and 40%, respectively, it is 40% in Bihar and 35% in West Bengal, Jharkhand has a deficiency of 36%.

A steep rise in the price of tur and urad is being observed in July and early August on account of a fall in land in the current Kharif season, encouraging the government to make it mandatory for stockholders to disclose stocks of tur.

Rahul Chauhan, director of agriculture research firm iGrain India said that heavy rains in the major pulses-producing regions such as Maharashtra and Karnataka and standing water in the fields may affect plant development, While the area under tur is less than last year.