Sowing for kharif season improves with pickup of monsoon

PUNE: Sowing for the kharif season has picked up with monsoon rains expected to cover most parts of the country over the next two to three days. The weather office, however, said the interior peninsula may have to wait for about a week before heavy rains can start filling up reservoirs. “We expect monsoon to cover most parts of the country, except the extreme western part of Rajasthan in next two to three days,” Sunitha Devi, director, weather section, Indian Meteorological Department, told ET.

Kharif sowings have been low this year because of deficient rains. As on June 24, sowing was completed on 11.7% of the area generally under kharif crops. This is about a quarter of what was achieved last year. Officials said the deficiency has been highest in case of paddy, cotton and soyabean. With good rains over the last few days, a major improvement in sowing is expected at the field level. “Soyabean sowing has almost been over as rainfall and moisture levels were adequate for sowing operations,” said Davish Jain, president of Soyabean Processors Association of India (SOPA).