Monsoon blessing: Kharif crop sowing in Maharashtra goes well, except for cane

In some good news for the state, a healthy monsoon in Maharashtra has led to sowing operations for kharif crops being completed on around 80% of the area. A healthy output of kharif crops such as rice, food grains, cereals and oil seeds may revive the rural economy, which saw a negative growth in the state last year due to recurrent drought and agrarian distress.

While sowing of oil seeds, legumes and cotton went well healthy and over 75% of the total area cultivated for these classes of crops has been covered, cultivation of millets and rice is expected to pick up in the coming days. Cultivation of sugarcane was reported to be still languishing.

The total average area under kharif crops in Maharashtra is 14,942,000 hectare, including rice and sugarcane. By Tuesday, sowing operations were completed on 9,716,000 hectare (65.02% of the total) as against just 9,178,300 hectare (61.42%) for the same period in the previous year.

"As on Saturday, sowing has been completed on 80% of the area. The rainfall has been good in most parts. There are some areas, such as some talukas in Solapur district, which have seen just 25-50% of their average rainfall. But these areas get rainfall in August and see cultivation of rabi jowar," agriculture minister Pandurang Phundkar told dna.

"The initial phase of monsoon has seen healthy sowing operations," said Maharashtra agriculture commissioner Vikas Deshmukh, adding that low-intensity rains were good for crops. "By last week, sowing operations were completed on around 65% area. By now, this may have increased to around 80- 85%. This is more than the sowing that was completed at the same time last year," said a senior official from the state Agriculture Commissionerate.

He added that the paddy sowing in areas such as the Konkan belt was likely to increase in the coming days. "Saplings are small and yet to be transplanted. Paddy transplantation is likely to increase in areas such as in the tribal belt of Pune district – Bhor, Velha and Mulshi – in the coming days," he said.

As on Tuesday, the sowing of rice, bajra, kharif jowar, nachani and maize was 37%, while pulses such as tur, udad, and moong have seen 85% sowing. Oil seeds such as groundnut, til, sunflower and soya bean have been sown on 86% of the area as against 79% for cotton. The acreage of sugarcane, however, has fallen. It has been cultivated on just 11,000 hectare of the 9,78,300 hectares so far. In June, the rainfall in Maharashtra was 79.4% of the normal for the month, but had risen to 130.8% of the average for July so far.

From June onwards, the progressive rainfall has been 104.2% of the average and 39.7% of the normal for the June to September period. From June 1 till date, a total of 222 tehsils in Maharashtra have received over 100% of the average rainfall, while 97 talukas have seen rainfall between 75 and 100%. No talukas have received rainfall below 25% of the average, while it is between 25% and 50% in just five talukas. Just 29 talukas have seen rainfall between 50 and 75%.

Fact check:

Average area on which Kharif crops are sown (including sugarcane): 14,942,000 hectares

Area on which sowing operations have been completed as on July 12, 2016: 9,716,000 hectares

Percentage: 65.02%

Area on which sowing operations were completed as on July 9, 2015: 9,178,300 hectares

Percentage: 61.42%