The government on Friday said the overall crops conditions have improved with the rainfall in last few days, and the paddy acreage areas are now likely to be down by about 45 lakh hectares.
Releasing the weekly crop sowing data, agriculture commissioner N B Singh said more rainfall in the next fortnight will be good for increasing paddy yield and the deficit in coverage under paddy, which currently stands at 63.6 lakh hectares (LH), is likely to reduce to 45-50 LH by the end of the season.
The sowing areas under paddy have reached 302.20 LH as on today, compared to 365.80 LH in the same period last year.
Singh said while 20 LH gap in paddy areas are estimated for Uttar Pardesh, it might be 10 LH in Bihar and 15 LH in other states. Taking the average yield of 2.11 tonnes per hectare, rice production could be 9-10 million tonnes less this Kharif season than last season's 84.58 million tonnes, he added.
The commissioner said there would be better yield in oilseeds even as the overall areas were less by 12.39 LH.
Areas under all the six kharif oilseeds have declined to 162.80 LH as on September 3, from 175.20 LH in the year-ago period.
The areas under groundnut cultivation dipped to 41.61 LH from 50.89 LH, soyabean 94.96 LH from 95.38, sunflower 4.56 LH from 5.10 LH and sesamum (til) 13.76 LH from 13.88 LH.
