Farmers boost summer sowing ahead of promising monsoon season

Bolstered by promising monsoon forecasts, farmers are aggressively boosting summer sowing, fuelling expectations of bumper yields and a potential easing of inflation.

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The area under summer crop sowing has reached 7.88 million hectares as of 9 May, 9.5% more from the same period a year ago, according to data shared by the ministry of agriculture and farmers' welfare. Acreages of all the crops, including paddy, pulses, coarse cereals and oilseeds, are higher from a year ago.

The current summer area coverage is also 10.5% more than the five-year average of 7.13 million hectares, the agriculture ministry data showed. The average summer sowing is based on the usual area from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

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This comes against the backdrop of a forecast for an early and above-normal monsoon in 2025 by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Monsoon rains are expected to hit Kerala on 27 May, five days earlier than usual.

The southwest monsoon advanced into some parts of south Bay of Bengal, south Andaman sea, Nicobar Islands and some parts of north Andaman Sea on Tuesday, two days in advance. Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon over some parts of south Arabian Sea, Maldives and Comorin area, some more parts of South Bay of Bengal, entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands, remaining parts of Andaman Sea, and some parts of central Bay of Bengal during the next 2-3 days, said an IMD official.

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The June-September southwest monsoon is progressing as per expectation and is crucial to India's agrarian economy, as it delivers nearly 70% of the country’s annual rainfall.

According to the ministry data, paddy area has increased to 3.20 million hectares as on 9 May from 2.85 million hectares last year, which is an increase of around 12%. Summer paddy is mainly grown in states such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

Also, coarse cereals such as jowar, bajra, ragi also saw a 12.6% increase to 1.46 million hectares.

“If everything goes well, the increase in acreage of the summer crops will lead to increase in production. What is more heartening is that there is an increase in acreage of pulses. This would not only lead to easing pressure on pulses prices but would also lead to increase in income of farmers," said A.K. Singh, former director, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

As of 9 May, area under pulses has increased to 2.27 million hectares from 2.12 million hectares, an increase of nearly 7%.

Oilseeds area have increased to 951,000 hectares from 923,000 hectares, which is an increase of around 3%.

The surge in production not only supports food security but also strengthens the government's efforts to put a lid on inflation. Retail inflation eased to a near six-year low of 3.16% in April mainly due to lower food prices, potentially creating room for the Reserve Bank of India to go in for a third successive rate cut at it June policy review.

India follows three main cropping seasons: summer, kharif and Rabi. The summer cropping season in India, also known as zaid, typically runs from March to June. This period is a short window between the Rabi (winter) and Kharif (monsoon) seasons. Zaid crops are mainly cultivated on irrigated land and are known for being short-duration. Kharif crops, which are sown in June and July and depend on the monsoon rains, are harvested in October and November. Rabi crops, planted in October and November, are harvested after January.