Heavy rains in Uttar Pradesh over the past five days have ended a largely dry monsoon spell and cheered farmers.
Kharif sowing, including paddy and pulses, was reported to be 17 per cent less last week compared to a year before, with a rain deficit in two-thirds of the state. The wet spell has reduced this gap, said officials.
UP's total sowing last year was 16.6 million hectares, of which Kharif crops accounted for 9.4 million hectares, including six million hectares of paddy.
According to the agriculture department, the state now has about 7.5 million hectares of aggregate Kharif sowing, of which paddy accounts for 5.2 million hectares.
This amounts to 80 per cent of the targeted Kharif sowing, with the paddy area being 90 per cent of the targeted six million hectares.
"We are confident of achieving our Kharif sowing target for the current season in the first week of August," said Vinod Kumar Singh, agricultural director (statistics and crop insurance).
The weather office has forecast heavy rains in the next 24 hours in major parts of UP, especially the eastern region. At present, despite the recent spell, 37 of the state's 75 districts are still categorised as rain-deficient. J P Gupta, the local head of the meteorological office, said that the overall monsoon would be normal in UP this year, with the current spell of heavy rains likely to last another one to two days.
So far, the sowing of paddy, pulses, coarse cereals and oilseed crops has been lower than normal. Planting of sugarcane, however, is higher than last year by 288,000 hectares, as the cash crop is normally sowed before the monsoon's advent.
Over the past weeks, the government has directed officials to prepare a contingency plan for dealing with a drought if the monsoon fails to revive. Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi has asked officials to encourage farmers to sow millets and other less water-intensive crops.