PUNE: Agricultural department data has revealed that acreage of almost all crops in Maharashtra has significantly dropped because of the drought situation in the state as the rabi sowing season ended in January.Overall, area growing all rabi crops this season has plunged by a staggering 40% in comparison with the average area. Rabi oil seeds and cereal grain witnessed the maximum fall. Area growing rabi pulses, which mainly includes grams, in Maharashtra has in fact been the lowest this season since the 2015-16 financial year.Area on which sowing for the rabi season has taken place till January 25, 2019, was a meagre 33.95 lakh hectare in comparison to the average area of 56.93 lakh hectare. “The season possibly saw no sowing on 23 lakh hectare area meant for rabi crops,” an official said.A recent agriculture ministry report revealed that sowing of wheat and pulses has taken place on less area in Maharashtra and a few other states. The report, which was based on the rabi sowing statistics across the country till February 8, said wheat has been sown on less area in states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat , West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.In case of pulses, sowing has taken place on less area in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana and Telangana, among other states.An agriculture department official told TOI that production was likely to be affected because the lack of soil moisture was causing crops to wither in places such as Nashik , Pune, Kolhapur and Aurangabad.“The rabi season sowing has come to an end. Though reports of sowing are still trickling in, ground reports till now show a fall in the area where sowing has taken place. The main reason for the fall is the drought situation. A lot of places reported no sowing because of lack of water. We apprehend shortage in cereal grains such as wheat and jowar because of the situation,” the official said.An agriculture ministry official said though the drought situation in Maharashtra and Karnataka has caused a fall in sowing, the overall situation in the country has been normal.Milind Pachpande, a farmer in Malkapur taluka, Buldhana, said he did not undertake sowing this rabi season because of water paucity. “Around 90% of farmers in our area did not take up sowing this time in the absence of any source of water to irrigate the crops,” he said.

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