NEW DELHI: The second Covid-19 wave has not impacted the
ongoing harvest operations in the country with farmers already harvesting over 55% of their crops as on Friday, showing continued resilience of the farm sector in the face of the pandemic.
The entire harvest operation of
Rabi (winter sown) crops is expected to be completed in the next 2-3 weeks, giving farmers enough time to prepare for the next crop cycle with the onset of monsoon. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is expected to come out with its first stage monsoon forecast in the middle of this month.
The harvest data, released by the
agriculture ministry, show that the farmers have already harvested over 91% of oilseeds, 83% of sugarcane, 82% of pulses, 77% of coarse cereals such as maize and jowar, and over 31% of wheat at the beginning of the Rabi marketing season. Overall, Rabi crops over 390 lakh hectares of farm land out of total acreage of 697 lakh hectares were harvested till Friday.
In what could be a clear sign of
bumper harvest in tune with the record estimates of food-grain production in the country in the 2020-21 crop year (July-June cycle), the ministry said that all crops were in “good condition” and harvesting was “going on in full swing”.
The ministry had in February estimated the country’s food-grain production in the 2020-21 crop year at an all-time record of around 303 million tonnes (MT), which is over 2% higher than the previous year's output. It showed record
output of paddy (120 MT), wheat (109 MT), maize (30 MT) and gram (12 MT) in the food-grain basket.
Meanwhile, sowing of summer crops (being sown ahead of monsoon) is also going on with good pace despite less rainfall during the current phase. Actual rainfall received in the country in March was 45% less compared to the normal rainfall during the period, but the summer sowing progressed well due to good soil moisture content and availability of adequate water in all major reservoirs of the country.