Paddy acre-age falls 4.76 pc in Kharif season this year

NEW DELHI: Area under coverage for paddy declined by 4.76 per cent in the Kharif season to 402.88 lakh hectares as due to erratic monsoon rains in some states like Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

The paddy acreage stood at 423.04 lakh hectares (LH) in last year's Kharif season.

The agriculture ministry on Friday released the final area under coverage for Kharif season of 2022.

The total area under coverage for all Kharif crops declined to 1102.79 LH from 1112.16 LH last year.

In case of paddy, less area has been reported from Jharkhand (9.22 LH), West Bengal (3.65 LH), Uttar Pradesh (2.48 LH), Madhya Pradesh (2.24 LH), Bihar (1.97 LH), Andhra Pradesh (1 LH), Assam (0.99 LH) and Chhattisgarh (0.74 LH).

Pulses acreage too declined to 133.68 LH from 139.21 LH in Kharif season of 2021. However, coarse cereals acreage rose to 183.89 LH from 175.15 LH.

In the non-foodgrains category, the area under coverage of oilseeds fell to 192.14 LH from 193.99 LH.

The country received 7 per cent excess showers in this year's monsoon season, but the rice-growing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand reported deficient rains.

Though the country as a whole has received excess rainfall, the distribution has been uneven, with the desert state of Rajasthan reporting 36 per cent more rains than normal and the north-east region, which witnesses copious showers, receiving deficit rainfall.

Due to fall in paddy acreage, the ministry has projected that rice production could decline by 6 per cent to 104.99 million tonnes during Kharif season of 2022-23 crop year (July-June). The likely drop in rice output has prompted the government to ban exports of broken rice with effect from September 9 and also impose 20 per cent export duty on non-basmati and non parboiled rice.

India, which commands 40 per cent share in the global rice trade, exported 21.23 MT of rice in 2021-22 fiscal as against 17.78 MT in the previous year.