Paddy acreage withers despite rainy days

NEW DELHI: Good rains towards end-August and early September notwithstanding, kharif paddy acreage this year is down by a marked 63 lakh hectares compared to the same (September 10) period last year.

In end August, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee pegged the crop shortfall this kharif at 15%. The Planning Commission projected foodgrain shortfall alone at 18 million plus tonnes early this month. Acreage figures released here on Friday have pegged paddy acreage at only 308.72 lakh ha compared to 371.07 lakh ha in the same time last year.

Oilseeds too show a big shortfall (a shortfall of seven lakh ha this kharif compared to last year���s 177.71 lakh ha, with groundnut showing the biggest drop), even as edible oil imports are set to breach the eight million mark this year in India. Total pulses area, though, has gone up by five lakh ha.

According to the Met Department, cumulative seasonal rainfall over the country as a whole is now 20% below the Long Period Average (LPA) against 23% last week. With states such as Punjab, Haryana, HP, UP and Rajasthan receiving good rains this week, the rainfall deficit for the dryest northwest region has narrowed down to only 34% from a high 40% in early June.

In the September 3-9 week alone, rainfall for the country as a whole was 56.2mm compared to a normal of 46.3 mm. A senior farm ministry official maintained today that the heavy rains would not impact the standing kharif crop adversely. Given that, the government is highly hopeful that persisting good rains towards the end of this month will increase the soil moisture for an early Rabi sowing.

All that rain may not bring forward the Rabi sowing season for key wheat states such as Punjab and Haryana but in parts of UP and Bihar, where wheat is sown later, in December, continuing good rains could mean earlier than normal sowing and, perhaps, additional acreage to make up the kharif foodgrain shortfall.