India’s summer crop planting down 5.3pc from last year, gap narrows

Indian farmers have planted 87 million hectares with summer-sown crops so far, farm ministry data showed on Friday, down 5.3 percent from last year, narrowing the sowing gap as monsoon rains picked up from the previous week.

The planting of rice, a key summer crop, was at 26.5 million hectares on Friday, against 30.4 million hectares at the same time last year, the ministry said. Corn planting was at 7.2 million hectares, unchanged from the same period last year.

The area planted with cotton totalled 11.5 million hectares, up from 11 million hectares a year earlier.

Sowing of soybeans, the main summer oilseed crop, stood at 11.9 million hectares, compared with 11.3 million hectares at the same time in 2018.

Farmers generally start planting rice, corn, cotton, soybeans, sugarcane and peanuts, among other crops, from June 1, when monsoon rains typically arrive in India. Sowing usually lasts until July.