Summer crop sowing in India crosses 29 lakh hectare
05 March 2021, New Delhi: Summer sowing season which is also called as Zaid season in India is a good opportunity for the farmers to improve their income as the weather allows a good harvest.
The Government has taken new initiatives through various programmes for cultivation of summer crops such as pulses, coarse cereals, nutri-cereals, and oilseeds. Though more than half of cultivated area in summer season is under pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals, the farmers with irrigation source are growing rice and vegetables during the summer season. The area under cultivation of zaid crops including rice has increased progressively 2.7 times from 29.71 lakh hectares in 2017-18 to 80.46 lakh hectares in 2020-21.
| Sl. No. | Crops | Average of Final Last 5 Years | Area Sown Current Year 2022 |
| 1 | Rice | 24.75 | 21.69 |
| 2 | Pulses | 12.95 | 2.16 |
| a | Greengram | 10.01 | 1.16 |
| b | Blackgram | 2.66 | 0.86 |
| c | Other Pulses | 0.28 | 0.14 |
| 3 | Coarse Cereals | 9.67 | 2.71 |
| a | Jowar | 0.30 | 0.05 |
| b | Bajra | 3.59 | 0.03 |
| c | Ragi | 0.18 | 0.11 |
| d | Maize | 5.61 | 2.51 |
| 4 | Oilseeds | 8.91 | 2.69 |
| a | Groundnut | 4.95 | 1.80 |
| b | Sunflower | 0.45 | 0.18 |
| c | Sesamum | 3.47 | 0.60 |
| d | Other Oilseeds | 0.05 | 0.10 |
| Total | 56.28 | 29.24 |
National and state wise targets for pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals were set for the summer 2021-22 in the recent National Conference for Summer/ Zaid season. Compared to 40.85 lakh hectares under these crops in 2020-21, an area of 52.72 lakh hectares will be covered during 2021-22 in the country. Pulses will cover 21.05 lakh hectares while 13.78 and 17.89 lakh hectares will be brought under oilseeds and nutri-cereals, respectively. Pulses and oilseeds will be promoted through Targeted Rice Fallow Area sub-component of NFSM and NFSM (OS&OP). These will also be supported as inter-crops in Sugarcane and Oil Palm.
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India produced 3086.47 lakh tonnes of food grains during 2020-21 (4th Advance Estimates), which will be an all-time record. Pulses and oilseed production has also achieved all time high at 257.19 and 361.01 lakh tonnes, respectively. Production of cotton is being estimated at 353.84 lakh bales with which India is set to rise to the first position in the world. On the production and productivity fronts, the horticulture sector has also outperformed conventional food grain crops.
