Heavy rains during the week ended August 17 not only wiped off the deficiency in the total rainfall but also increased acreage of many crops, sowing of which were lagging till now.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country received its highest rainfall of the current season during the week which ended on Friday. Rains were 26 per cent above normal across the country.
The trend of well-distributed rains is expected to continue further into the coming weeks as well, which should ease some of the worries over the earlier forecast of below-normal rains in August and September. Such was the intensity and distribution of rainfall in the reported week that overall monsoon deficiency for the entire June-September season is now estimated to be just one per cent of the long period average as against four per cent a week before.
Northwest India, which comprises crucial grain-producing areas like Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, was the biggest beneficiary, receiving almost 74 per cent above-normal rains in the reported week.
Rains in the eastern part, a big producer of paddy (de-husked rice) and maize, were 36 per cent above normal during the week. Good rains have also helped in pushing up the water storage in 81 major reservoirs across the country.
Till Thursday, the storage in major reservoirs was almost 137 per cent of what it was during the same time last year and 67 per cent of their full capacity. Expectedly, the area under various crops also showed a steep upward movement during the week.
According to the latest estimate from the agriculture ministry, the area under paddy crop till Friday is almost 32.21 million hectares, 8.36 per cent more over the same period last year. The total area under oilseeds was estimated to be 16.88 million hectares till Friday, up 2.63 per cent from the same period in 2010.
Officials said the rise in the total area under oilseeds is less because of decline in groundnut acreage which stood at 4.06 million hectares, down from 4.87 million hectares sown during the same period last year.
Acreage of cotton and sugarcane, sowing for which is over across the country, is more than last year. Pulses and coarse cereals continued to be laggards of the season, the data showed.
