The monsoon is from June to September in India and has a bearing on the performance of the Kharif crop which includes rice, maize, groundnut, bajra, soybean, tur, moong, urad, cotton, jute and sugarcane.
The cumulative rainfall for the country during the period June 1st to July 26th, 2017 is 472.7 mm. which is almost equal to that of last year which was 471.8mm. The rainfall has been large or excess in 5, normal in 23 and deficient/large deficient in 8 out of 36 meteorological subdivisions which are defined by the IMD. .
Interestingly, there has been a hike in Karif crop sowing by 2.61% for 2017-18 as against 2016-17. An increase in the sowing of paddy which is one of the main kharif crops is observed, this year the acreage is 280.3 lakh hectares in comparison with last year’s 266.93 lakh hectares.
However, uneven rains have led to floods in a few areas like West Rajasthan and drought situations in other parts of India like Karnataka.
In a nutshell
– A decrease in acreage of ‘Tur’ has been observed due to last years over production crises, else the rest of the pulses have seen an overall increase of 3.70%.
– Due to second straight year of good monsoon the production of Kharif crops is expected to exceed last year’s production of 138.04 million tons.
– With the extremities of drought and floods in different parts of the country, the overall acreage has increased by 2.61%. In the flood affected areas farmers are expected to replant the crops as and when the water regresses.
– Cultivation of oil seeds is still lagging, which is not helping the 14.5 million tons of vegetable oil imports in anyway.