Pulses production during 2021-22 likely 10% higher: Skymet & Gramcover

New Delhi, Sept 13: India could see a 10 per cent jump in production of pulses during the 2021-22 financial year, with the national average yield expected to be around 702 kilograms per hectare,14 kilograms per hectare higher than the last year’s yield of 688 kilograms per hectare.

Weather and agri analytics firm ‘Skymet and insurtech startup Gramcover made this projection in ‘the Kharif Crop Outlook report for 2021-22’ released on Monday.

The report said that pulses production is estimated to be around 10.24 million tons (14.60 million hectares) that will be around 10 per cent higher than last year’s Kharif production estimates of 9.31 million tons (13.51 million hectares).

Though sowing of pulses is delayed in almost every state, it will have no impact on productivity as Pulse’s sowing continues till the end of August. As per the actual rainfall recorded till August and the forecast for September, productivity is likely to be good in all states, the report said.

The report highlights the monsoon performance, reservoir status, flood analysis, soil moisture assessment, normalized difference vegetation index, vegetation condition index, Kharif sowing progress and crop-wise analysis (cotton, soybean and pulses).

It highlighted the data released by the Ministry of Agriculture on September 2 this year according to which Kharif sowing stood at 1081.5 lakh hectares, about 1.14 per cent lower this year compared to the corresponding period the previous year.

The lower sowing across the country is attributed to the break in the monsoon after timely progress till it crossed Uttar Pradesh and afterwards progress over Rajasthan was stalled.

“Overall, the country is in a moderate cropping condition which will improve as cropping is escalating towards vegetative condition from the sowing phase. The vegetative condition will improve with persistent precipitation and crop stage leading towards the good vegetative condition. GramCover has worked with 4 lakh farmers in Kharif 2020 which spiked to 14 lakh plus in 2021 Kharif season,” CEO of Gramcover  Dhyanesh Bhatt said.

Yogesh Patil, CEO of Skymet said, “This year, the Agriculture Ministry has taken steps to promote the planting of pulses and oilseeds crops more than ever. Pulses sowing stood about 1.85 per cent higher as compared to the sowing during the same period the previous year. Cotton sowing too remained lower as of September 2 this year with a total area of 118.13 lakh hectares, about 6.58 per cent lower as compared to the area of 126.45 lakh hectares sown previous year during the same period.”