Rabi sowing in rainfed areas may face El Nino challenge: Agriculture Secretary

The upcoming rabi season, for which the sowing of crops such as wheat and mustard takes place in winter, is likely to be challenging for rainfed areas due to the El Nino weather pattern, Agriculture Secretary Atish Chandra said on Monday. Addressing a two-day national conference on preparedness for the forthcoming rabi season, the top official said that due to the erratic monsoon, some states could face the problem of excess soil moisture, while areas with deficient rainfall may see prolonged periods of stress for the forthcoming rabi sowing season. Strategies need to be calibrated accordingly for the winter sowing, he pointed out.

He pointed out that the kharif season has been very challenging, particularly in rainfed areas, as a weak monsoon impacted crops. Atish Chandra highlighted, on the other hand, that due to climate change, even irrigated areas in the country have seen untimely and heavy rain in many places, which has damaged crops due to flooding. "Changes due to climate change have already started happening, and they are happening at a fast pace. We are seeing that in the coming season, production is likely to be affected to a large extent.

And the rabi season will also be challenging for the rainfed areas," he observed. While India has achieved self-reliance in cereals, it continues to import pulses, oilseeds, and some horticulture products such as fruits, he added. Rabi crops are normally sown in a total area of about 638 lakh hectares, out of which wheat is the dominant crop covering over 300 lakh hectares, with pulses coming next at 140 lakh hectares, followed by oilseeds with 87 lakh hectares and coarse cereals comprising 55 lakh hectares.

The total area sown under kharif crops in the current season across the country is estimated at 1,086.31 lakh hectares as on September 4 this year, which was lower than the corresponding figure of 1104 lakh hectares in the same period last year. The official figures show that the area under rice is 421.82 lakh hectares this year, compared with 438.19 lakh hectares during the same period last year. The decline in the area sown is attributed to the deficient monsoon this year following the adverse impact of the El Nino weather pattern.

Overall, the decline in rice area coverage is mainly attributable to substantial reductions in Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The area under pulses such as urad and moong has gone up to 117.13 lakh hectares, which represents a 1.83 lakh hectares increase over the corresponding figure of 115.30 lakh hectares during the same period last year, as the crop requires less water.

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