India to have a Bumper Kharif Crop – Burning Issue – Free PDF

KHARIF

• The Kharif cropping season starts with the onset of monsoon and ends when the rainy season is over. These crops require good rainfall.
• Sown when the rainy season begins, between the month of April and May and harvested Between September and October. Paddy, maize, bajra, jowar are a few Kharif crops grown in India.

RABI

• Rabi crops are known as winter crops. They are grown in the month of October or November. The crops are then harvested in spring.
• These crops require frequent irrigation because these are grown in dry areas. Wheat, gram, barley, are some of the rabi crops grown in India.

GOOD NEWS

• Farmers have completed sowing of kharif crops in nearly 55 per cent of the season’s normal area by the first week of July.
•  Last year at this time, they had achieved hardly 38 per cent coverage, while undertaking the bulk of plantings after mid-July and all through August.
•  The primary reason has been the southwest monsoon’s timely onset and the country receiving 14 per cent above-normal rains so far.

REASONS

• With water levels in major reservoirs at 146 per cent of the last 10-years’ average for this time and groundwater tables recharged from the good pre-monsoon showers as well, farmers have sought to capitalise on the excellent soil moisture conditions.
• Not surprisingly, every crop — from paddy and pulses to maize, bajra, jowar, small millets, soyabean, sesamum, groundnut and cotton — has posted a significant acreage jump over last kharif.
• Fertiliser sales registering high double-digit growth every month from November is further proof of farmers’ inclination to plant and also invest in their crop.

GOOD NEWS

•  Last year, there was very little rainfall till the last week of July, after which it poured so much that 2019 ended up as the wettest year in a quarter of a century.
• When the kharif crop, too, would be in the vegetative growth stage. Government agencies need to be on high alert during the next 4-5 weeks and take preemptive control measures, including aerial spraying operations in the main scheduled desert breeding areas for locust
• The Narendra Modi government did well to ensure smooth harvesting of the rabi crop and also minimum support price-based procurement in respect of wheat, paddy, chana, rapeseed-mustard and tur.

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