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If early sowing trends are any indication, farmers have more or less chosen to bring in more area under pulses and cotton this time, while opting out of oilseeds.
According to the Agriculture Ministry's latest kharif sowing update, a total area of 0.954 lakh hectares (lh) have so far been planted under pulses, which is 18.8 per cent more than last year's coverage of 0.803 lh at this point of time.
Likewise with cotton, where 11.233 lh have already been sown, a 6 per cent increase over last year's corresponding area of 10.601 lh. In both pulses and cotton, the price outlook is currently favourable to farmers, with domestic production shortfall in the former's case and export demand for the latter being the main drivers.
It is just the other way round in oilseeds, where a flood of imports in combination with bearish global edible oil price trends is putting pressure on crop prices.
As a result, farmers are less inclined to plant oilseeds.
So far, only 0.837 lh have been planted under various kharif oilseeds, which is over 34 per cent below the progressive area of 1.27 lh achieved at this time last year.
Early trends
A clearer picture will emerge in the coming weeks, as sowing activity picks up.
The one crop where the picture is clearer, with a large part of planting already complete, is sugarcane. Till now, growers have brought in 42.85 lh under sugarcane for the 2010-11 crushing season. Sugarcane area has gone up from 19.77 lh to 20.41 lh in Uttar Pradesh, from 1.21 lh to 3.03 lh in Bihar, from 2.45 lh to 2.83 lh in Karnataka, while trailing in Maharashtra (6.86 lh versus 7.36 lh) and Tamil Nadu (2.75 lh versus 3.01 lh).
05 June, 2010 by admin