The government on Friday said
monsoon deficiency is at 21 per cent so far and expressed concern about the slow pace of sowing of coarse cereals.
Briefing media on the kharif crop sowing situation, Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna said recovery is unlikely in the shortfall in coverage of area in Karnataka, which is facing a drought-like situation.
"The country as a whole is 21 per cent deficient as on July 26, which is one percentage point better than the last data. Possibility is that we will be roundabout the same level of deficiency at the end of this month," Bahuguna said.
"I now do not see any likelihood of area being recovered in Karnataka. Loss of area under kharif crops will be in the state," he added.
The area sown to major kharif crops like paddy, coarse cereals, pulses, oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane in the state is down by one million hectare from over the year-ago period, as per the data released by the Ministry.
The worse affected crop in Karnataka is coarse cereals and its area is lower by 0.5 million hectare at 1.27 million hectare so far.
Area under coarse cereals across the country is down by 23 per cent at 11.7 million hectare from over year-ago period.
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