Farmers may plant more maize, cotton, soyabean due to export demand

Farmers are likely to plant more basmati rice, maize, cotton, tur, urad and soyabean and
less of moong and groundnut because of the price trend and export demand but they
will take call after the government announces the minimum support price for this year’s
kharif, or summer-sown crops, company executives and analysts said. The progress of
the keenly awaited monsoon rainfall will also be an important factor in determining this
season’s cropping pattern, they said. “This summer season, we can expect farmers in the
irrigated belts of Punjab and Haryana to shift from normal rice to basmati rice. Since
the past one year, they have got good prices for basmati with increase in demand from
domestic and export market,” said Angshu Mallick, deputy CEO, Adani Wilmar.
Farmers have already started preparing land for their kharif crop and raising paddy
nurseries from where saplings will be transplanted to fields by the second week of June.
The government has kept the target of planting similar to the previous year at 102 lakh
hectares. Davish Jain, chairman of the Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA),
said that looking at the price trend of soyabean and maize, farmers will be enthused to
plant them this season. “Farmers have got 15 per cent higher price at Rs 3,800-3,900
compared to the government fixed price. The exports were also higher,” he said.
Farmers will require 3-4 inches of rain to start planting and which will be essential for
the germination of the seed, said Jain. Farmers will plant those commodities which
required less water as the monsoon may be below normal this year, said Anuj Gupta,
deputy VP- research, commodities, Angel Broking. He said that the government focus
has to be self-dependence on pulses and oilseeds and to increase seed replacement ratio
and varietal replacement. “The tur prices has increased almost 11 per cent from Rs 5,200
to Rs 5,800 per quintal and the urad prices has increased almost 10 per cent from Rs
5,000 to Rs 5,500 per quintal in last one year. Even cotton prices have increased by
almost 11 per cent from Rs 19,800 to Rs 21,000 per bale in the last one year which will
influence how farmers plant,” said Gupta. Pulses can be intercropped with oilseeds,
sugarcane, millets, maize and cotton. Deficient water in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana will also have a bearing on what farmer’s plant, traders said. “In
Maharashtra, sugarcane acreage has fallen according to field reports. We will wait for
satellite report and give a final analysis in the beginning of July,” said Abinash Verma,
director general, Indian Sugar Mills Association. In unirrigated parts of Rajasthan,
Haryana and Gujarat, farmers may go for guar if it rains, said BD Aggarwal, managing
director of Vikas WSP, a guar gum polymer maker .
“In irrigated areas guar planting is going on. If the rains are normal and well distributed
then we can see additional area coming to guar along with moong pulses,” he said.