Farmers across Maharashtra have so far completed sowing on barely 1% of the total 1.42 crore hectares for till June 15 due to the delay in monsoon onset over the state this year.
The farmers have completed cultivation on over 1.48 lakh hectares till June 15 as against 66,000 hectares during the same period last year. Though the land under cultivation of kharif crops till now is more than what it was last year, the uncertainty over rain was not there in 2022 and cultivation had picked up in the last two weeks of June. But this time, the impact of cyclone Biparjoy and a full-blown El Nino was already visible on the southwest monsoon pattern over India.
Nearly 50% of 716 districts in India are currently recording large deficiency in monsoon rainfall, while another 19% are deficient, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data showed on Wednesday. All subdivisions of Maharashtra have a rain deficiency of over 79-80% so far.