Increase of 7.35 lakh hectares in the area of Kharif pulse crops
13-Aug-2024 04:17 PM
New Delhi. Encouraged by the high market prices, Indian farmers, supported by good rains of the southwest monsoon, tried to increase the area of sowing of Kharif pulse crops this time, in which they also got success. According to official figures,
till August 12 this year, the production area of pulse crops increased to 117.45 lakh hectares, which is 7.35 lakh hectares more than the sowing area of 110.10 lakh hectares during the same period last year. But the area of the current year is lagging far behind the area of 125.55 lakh hectares of 2022 and the sowing area of 132.15 lakh hectares of 2021. In fact, in the year 2023,
the sowing of pulses had decreased due to less monsoon rains and drought conditions in many areas. In the current Kharif season, there has been a good increase in the production area of Arhar (Tuvar) and Moong as compared to last year, but the area under Urad and Moth has lagged behind.
Government data shows that during the period under review, the production area of Tuvar at the national level jumped from 38.50 lakh hectares to 44.55 lakh hectares and the sowing area of Moong increased from 23.85 lakh hectares to 32.80 lakh hectares.
There are reports of increase in area under Tuvar in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat and Moong in Rajasthan.
On the other hand, during the same period, the production area of Urad fell from 28.85 lakh hectares to 27.75 lakh hectares and the sowing area of Moth got stuck at 8.70 lakh hectares from 9.30 lakh hectares.
The area under Kulthi is also lagging behind by 4 thousand hectares. Due to uneven distribution of monsoon rains in Madhya Pradesh, the most important producer of urad, farmers are facing difficulty in increasing the crop area.
It is worth noting that the market price of both tur and urad is much higher than the government support price,
while the government has also announced to buy its entire saleable quantity from the farmers. There has been a spectacular increase of 605 lakh hectares in the sowing area of tur, but the area of urad has decreased by 1.10 lakh hectares.