NEW DELHI: India has received normal rain in the monsoon season so far, says the India Meteorological Department (IMD), but the kharif sowing acreage reflects otherwise.
As per IMD data, the sowing of kharif crops, including paddy and pulses, was delayed compared to normal monsoon years 2022 and 2021 (2023 was a monsoon deficient year).
Around July 15 this year, the total kharif sowing was around 575.13 lakh hectare (LHa) — over 10% increase compared to previous year, which was monsoon deficient. However, when compared to the normal monsoon years 2022 and 2021, the sowing is less by around 3%.
The current kharif crops sowing trend indicates there has been a sharp rise in sowing acreage compared to previous year, which was El Nino year. Evidently, the country had witnessed around 6% deficit southwest monsoon in 2023.
El Nino is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, synonymous with weakening of the southwest monsoon.
The current paddy sowing acreage reduced by over 11% compared to normal monsoon year 2022 and reduced around 25% when compared to 2021.
According to the IMD, the key rice-producing states like Punjab, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Gangetic West Bengal have received deficit rainfall.
Further, the current pulses sowing acreage reduced by over 9% when compared to normal monsoon year 2022 and reduced around 6% against the 2021 data. Among pulses, tur daal acreage reduced in comparison to 2021 along with the urad and moong dal acreage. Besides, non-food kharif crops like cotton have mildly reduced compared to previous two years.