Indian farmers have planted summer-sown crops on 97.5 million hectares, down 2.3 percent year-on-year, agriculture ministry data showed on Friday, substantially narrowing the sowing gap compared with last year from previous weeks.
The planting of rice, a key summer crop, was at 33.5 million hectares, against 35.8 million hectares at the same time last year, the ministry said. Corn planting was at 7.5 million hectares, almost unchanged from the same period last year.
The area planted with cotton totalled 12.3 million hectares, up from 11.7 million hectares a year earlier.
Sowing of soybeans, the main summer oilseed crop, stood at 11.2 million hectares, compared with 11.1 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.
The gap between planting figures for equivalent weeks of 2019 and 2018 has narrowed from the 4.1% reported last week.
The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare will keep updating provisional sowing figures as it gathers more information from state governments. The planting figures are also subject to revision depending on the progress of the June-September monsoon season.
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