Paddy cultivation sees decline

The trend of decrease in paddy sowing has continued even as the monsoon season in northern India is in its last legs. According to the data released by the Union Agriculture Ministry on Friday, the decrease in the area of paddy cultivation is 22.90 lakh hectares, 5.62% less that the area covered in 2021.

As of now, paddy has been cultivated in 383.99 lakh hectares of area and in the corresponding period of last year it was 406.89 lakh hectares. “Thus 22.90 lakh ha less area has been covered compared to last year,” the Centre said. States such as Jharkhand (decrease of 9.80 lakh hectares), Madhya Pradesh (6.32 lakh hectares), West Bengal (4.45 lakh hectares), Chhattisgarh (3.91 lakh hectares), Uttar Pradesh (2.61 lakh hectares) and Bihar (2.18 lakh hectares) are the major contributors for the decrease in the cultivated area of paddy in this kharif season. Meanwhile States such as Telangana (increase of 4.71 lakh hectares), Haryana (0.94 lakh hectares), Nagaland (0.78 lakh hectares) and Gujarat (0.55 lakh hectares) showed an increase in the area of cultivation of paddy.

Farmers’ organisations have been maintaining that the higher input cost, particularly the increase in prices of fertilisers, is the main reason for the decrease in paddy cultivation apart from scarcity of water. The government is hopeful about a normal monsoon this year.

Cultivation of pulses

The coverage of pulses too witnessed a marginal decrease. In this kharif, the cultivation so far is in 129.55 lakh hectares compared to 135.46 lakh hectares in 2021. Increase in area in cultivation is reported from States such as Madhya Pradesh (4.08 lakh hectares), Uttar Pradesh (0.22 lakh hectares) and Assam (0.11 lakh hectares) while Maharashtra (decrease of 3.23 lakh hectares), Telangana (1.70 lakh hectares), Jharkhand (1.33 lakh hectares) and Karnataka (0.94 lakh hectares). Tur/arhar cultivation was down marginally at 44.86 lakh hectares as against 47.56 lakh hectares in 2021, while that of urad cultivation was at 36.62 lakh hectares against 38.18 lakh hectares in 2021.

Oilseeds have been cultivated in 188.51 lakh hectares, slightly less than 189.66 lakh hectares of 2021. In the case of sugarcane, the cultivation is 55.65 lakh hectares, an increase compared to 54.70 lakh hectares in 2021 kharif. In the case of cotton, the cultivation 125.69 lakh hectares against 117.68 lakh hectares during last kharif.