Southwest Monsoon And Kharif Sowing

While the govt has introduced windfall tax and export curbs to arrest runaway prices, a lot depends on how the monsoon pans out this season

Official data showed that among major kharif crops, acreage of pulses was almost 7 per cent more than last year

All eyes on rains in the weeks ahead till August-end to assess final impact

Timely arrival of the monsoon is critical for India's crop output and economic growth.

IMD announcement on May 15; timely onset augurs well for its subsequent progress and movement over mainland, which should aid in timely plantation of kharif crops

The phenomenon has caused a lot of problems, such as the spurt in food prices and disruption in supplies due to breakdown in the already Covid-19-battered transport in the hinterland

Rains do swivel between normal, deficient and excess across years, but good rains in times of severe contraction in the economy are a big relief

Acreage under rice, moong, ragi, groundnut, soybean, and nigerseed has seen the maximum increase

The steady monsoon progress has spurred sowing of kharif crops and till last week, acreage was almost 21 per cent more than the same period last

In June, the first month of the season, rainfall over north India was 4 per cent above normal, which was the lowest among the four major subdivisions.

Going forward, however, experts say sowing should pick up pace once monsoon revives eastern, central, northern and western parts of country