Kharif Seeding Pace Slows in India

PANAMA - Sep 2/16 - SNS -- The pace of seeding kharif or monsoon season pulses in India continued to slow during the past week, with farmers planting just 260,000 hectares. This lifted total area so far this year to 14.2 million hectares, compared to 10.7 million at this time last year and the recent five-year average of 10.2 million.

On average, farmers planted another 587,000 hectares of pulses between the end of September and the end of the kharif seeding period. Actual area sown ranged between 1.15 million hectares in 2010 and a low of just 389,000 hectares in 2013. The implication is the final figure will approach 15 million hectares, with most of the increase in pigeon peas or tur.

The monsoon is expected to end later than normal this year. While this will replenish soil moisture reserves, water held in reservoirs remains below normal, which could affect areas sown to irrigated crops during the coming rabi or winter planting season. The implication is dryland crops could be favored, suggesting rabi season pulse area could climb.

Water stored in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on September, 01 2016 was 105.248 BCM (billion cubic meters), which is 67% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This was 114% of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 99% of storage of average of last ten years.