Urad, Moong, Bajra Most Preferred in Summer; Sowing Area up 19-40%

Crops such as urad, moong, sesame, and bajra have seen higher growth in the current season, with overall sowing areas under summer crops up 5.4% from last year. Acreage in paddy, groundnut, and maize has decreased.

According to the Agriculture Ministry's weekly update, the total sowing area of summer crops has reached 73.58 lakh hectares (lh) as of Friday, up from 69.81 lh in the same period last year.

Paddy planting was down 3.8% at 29.80 lh compared to 30.96 lh planted the previous year. Total area under oilseeds has increased by 3.3% to 11.04 lh from 10.69 lh. The area of coarse cereals has increased by 5.4% to 11.33 lh. Maize area decreased by 3.5% to 6.89 lh from 7.14 lh the previous year among coarse cereals.

Area under pulses, on the other hand, increased by 22.9 percent to 21.41 lh (17.42 lh), owing primarily to a 21.2 percent increase in moong crop coverage. Planting in moong was at 17.48 lh as of May 13, compared to 14.43 lh the previous year. The urad area increased by 39.9 percent to 3.69 lh (2.64 lh).

Madhya Pradesh (8.85 lh), Bihar (2.07 lh), Odisha (2.61 lh), Tamil Nadu (1.95 lh), Uttar Pradesh (1.53 lh), Gujarat (0.96 lh), West Bengal (0.84 lh), Punjab (0.39 lh), Andhra Pradesh (0.35 lh), Chhattisgarh (0.35 lh), and Maharashtra are the major growing states for pulses (0.26 lh).

Meanwhile, as of May 13, the cumulative rainfall in the pre-monsoon season since March 1 is 19% below normal on a pan-India basis.

While the northwest region has received 77% less precipitation than the long-term average, central India has received 56% less precipitation. So far, only 29% of the geographical areas have received normal or above-normal rainfall.

According to Central Water Commission data, water levels in 113 reservoirs with irrigation facilities were 36% of their total capacity of 129.76 billion cubic metres (BCM) on May 12, compared to 33% a year ago and 26% considered normal at this time.