Date:27/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/06/27/stories/2006062702870800.htm

Back Oilseeds, cotton sowing lags behind

Our Bureau

46 per cent deficient rainfall during June second week

At a glance
Area under rice has increased by 43,000 hectares.
Cotton acreage is down 51,000 hectares.
Sugarcane coverage is up by 1.75 lakh hectares.

Chennai , June 26

Sowing in oilseeds continues to lag behind, even as acreage in cotton has declined during the current kharif season.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, there has been a slackening in sowing in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

Slowdown

With the overall activity of monsoon slowing down during the second week of this month, the country received 46 per cent deficient rainfall during June 8-14. Of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions in the country, 32 reported deficient rainfall during the period.

Since the beginning of the monsoon from June 1, 18 of the meteorological sub-divisions have reported deficient rainfall.

As per the India Meteorological Department, there is possibility of the country getting only 93 per cent of the long period average rainfall this year.

Rice sowing up

With regard to progress in sowing, the area under rice has increased by 43,000 hectares to 14.06 lakh hectares (lh). While Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa have reported a rise in the acreage, Punjab has reported a fall.

Though the overall acreage has shown improvement, maize sowing is down by 78,000 hectares at 7.98 lh with Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh accounting for 1.4-lh-fall. Jowar and Bajra coverage is up with Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka reporting a rise.

Reflecting the buoyancy in the sugar sector, acreage in sugarcane has increased across the country with Tamil Nadu accounting for the highest rise of 1.2 lh. Overall, the coverage is up by 1.75 lh.

Haryana slips

Cotton acreage is down 51,000 hectares with Haryana alone accounting for a fall of 60,000 hectares. With sowing yet to begin in States such as Madhya Pradesh and monsoon yet to gather steam, the coming week could also see the lower coverage continuing.

Sowing in oilseeds, one of the important kharif crop, is down by 1.23 lh with the acreage being lower in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Groundnut down

Among the oilseeds, coverage of groundnut is down 1.1 lh at 89,000 hectares, while thanks to 18,000 hectares rise in Karnataka soyabean sowing is up at 32,000 hectares.

Decline in acreage of sunflower (3,000 hectares) and sesamum (21,000 hectares) has been reported, while castor coverage is up 3,000 hectares.

Perhaps signifying a shift in crop owing to delay in monsoon, pulses coverage has improved by 1.16 lh at 3.21 lh with most of the rise coming from Karnataka and Orissa. The water storage level in 76 major reservoirs in the country declined to 30.43 billion cubic metres (BCM) during the review period.

Higher Storage position

But the storage level is 15.34 BCM higher than last year. In percentage terms, it is 83 per cent higher than the last 10 years' average and 96 per cent compared with last year.