Higher pulses acreage, good monsoon drive up kharif sowing

Sowing of pulses in the ongoing kharif season has outstripped last year’s planting by a wide margin as the area under all crops till August 12, at 954.15 lakh hectares (lh), is a 6.5 per cent increase over sowing in the same period last year at 895.91 lh.

Acreage under pulses increased 33 per cent to 130.17 lh, while the area under rice rose 7 per cent to 326.08 lh; coarse cereals increased by 6 per cent to 173.56 lh and oilseeds posted a rise of 5.13 per cent to 172.25 lh, according to data collated from States and released by the Agriculture Ministry.

Note

The agricultural crop year in India is from July to June. 

The Indian cropping season is classified into two main seasons-(i) Kharif and (ii) Rabi based on the monsoon. 

The kharif cropping season is from July –October during the south-west monsoon and

the Rabi cropping season is from October-March (winter).