New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The total area sown under kharif crops in the current season across the country so far is estimated at 1016.57 lakh hectares as on August 14 this year, compared with the corresponding figure of 1037.52 lakh hectares in the same period last year, data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Monday showed.
The official figures show that the area under rice is 379.07 lakh hectares so far this year, compared with 393.44 lakh hectares during the same period last year. The 14.37 per cent decline in the area sown so far is attributed to the deficient monsoon this year following the adverse impact of the El Nino weather pattern.
The area under pulses such as urad and moong has held steady at 108.14 lakh hectares compared with 108.49 lakh hectares during the same period last year as the crop requires less water.
The area covered under coarse cereals or millets such as jowar, bajra, and ragi has been estimated at 172.96 lakh hectares during the current season so far, which has fallen from 177.13 lakh hectares in the same period of the previous year.
The area under sugarcane, which is an annual crop sown earlier, touched 58.31 lakh hectares so far compared to the corresponding figure of 58.62 lakh hectares for the same period of the previous year.
The area sown under cotton during the current kharif season so far has been estimated at 107.30 lakh hectares, which is about the same as 108.26 lakh hectares sown in the previous year.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had approved an increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for 14 Kharif Crops for Marketing Season 2026-27 to ensure remunerative prices to farmers.
The increase in MSP for Kharif Crops for Marketing Season 2026-27 is in line with the Union Budget 2018-19 announcement of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times the all-India weighted average cost of production. The expected margin to farmers over their cost of production is estimated to be highest in case of moong (61 per cent) followed by bajra (56 per cent), maize (56 per cent) and tur/arhar (54 per cent). For the rest of the crops, the margin to farmers over their cost of production is estimated to be at 50 per cent, according to an official statement.
In recent years, the government has also been promoting the cultivation of crops other than cereals, such as pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals, by offering a higher MSP for them.
–IANS
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