Good monsoon rains are expected to increase the production area of paddy
17-Jul-2024 10:44 AM
New Delhi. Paddy is such an agricultural product which is cultivated in all the states of the country, including the far southern state of Kerala, the border states of Northeast India - Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the last provinces of the North-West region - Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in the western part.
Paddy is produced in all the interior states of the country. Its major producing states include West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Haryana, Bihar Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Tamil Nadu etc.
The Central Government has once again increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy for the 2024-25 season, while its open market price is also running high.
Apart from this, the southwest monsoon is being seen very active during the current year and good rainfall is occurring in different parts of the country.
This is helping the farmers to transplant paddy. Although monsoon rains have decreased in states like Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh and some parts of Telangana, Punjab and Haryana are also facing lack of rain, but normal rainfall is expected in these states in the coming time.
The latest data of the Union Agriculture Ministry shows that during the current Kharif season, the total paddy production area has increased to 115.64 lakh hectares at the national level till July 15, which is about 20 lakh hectares more than the area of 95.78 lakh hectares during the same period of the year 2023.
Actually, last year the monsoon condition was weak and paddy transplantation was being hampered.
As a result, the pace of transplantation was slow. Earlier, till the same date (July 15), the paddy production area was recorded at 128.50 lakh hectares in the year 2022 and 155.53 lakh hectares in the year 2021, compared to which the production area of 2024 is lagging far behind.
It is expected that there will be abundant monsoon rains during July-August and farmers will get a good opportunity to increase the pace of paddy transplantation. Due to this, the production area may increase to around or above the normal average area.