India's Kharif Pulse Area Down 1.4M Hectares
VANCOUVER - Aug 24/12 - SNS -- Monsoon or kharif season pulse area is down sharply from last year and almost one million hectares below the recent five year average seeding rate for this time of year.
Farmers seed an average 300,000 hectares of pulses during the past week. Land in pulses now totals 8.83 million hectares, compared to 10.264 million at this time last year, 10.9 million in 2010 and 9.07 million in 2009. Normally, 92% of all the kharif season pulses that will be planted, have been planted by the start of the second week of August.
Monsoon rainfall activity improved during the past week, but the country still faces an overall deficit of 14%. The deficit is greatest in northwestern India, but if the monsoon rainfall activity can maintain its current intensity, the deficit should narrow.
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