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The seasonal rainfall activity will now speed up sowing of summer crops (kharif) in the north-west region with the short delay in covering the entire country not expected to impact farming operations.
Historical data (1960-2021) shows the deviation from July 8 was not too significant. The monsoon had covered the entire country on July 19 in 2017 and 2019 while the most delayed one was recorded in 2002 when it happened as late as on August 15.
Incidentally, the country had reported ‘normal’ acreage of kharif crops both in 2017 and 2019. Total sown area, in fact, depends more on spatial distribution of rainfall over the entire monsoon season (June-September) than on early or late coverage unless the deviation is substantial. Farmers normally sync their sowing operations with arrival of monsoon in respective regions.“The current gap in acreage compared to last year is expected to be bridged in next two-three weeks if the monsoon does not face a new ‘break phase’ like the one which it faced from June 19 to July 8,” said an agriculture ministry official.
The ministry’s data shows the kharif acreage has already covered around 47% (500 lakh hectares) of the normal sown area (nearly 1,073 lakh hectares) of the season since beginning of monsoon rains in first week of June. “Remaining 53% is most likely to be covered during the season till September end,” said the official, referring to prediction of overall ‘normal’ monsoon rainfall.
Acreage figures show that the sown area as on July 9 was 58 lakh hectares less than the acreage reported during corresponding period last year. But good rainfall in other parts of the country, except north-west India, had resulted in increase of acreage by 3 lakh hectares over the ‘normal’ sown area (497 lakh hectares) of the corresponding period.
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