The Agriculture Ministry has said that sowing of many crops in the country has decreased, as compared with that of the last year.

The sowing of rice has just started and it is expected to increase with the season, while farmers in Kerala, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and in West Bengal have planted paddy more than the last year.

The amount of paddy planted is 10.97 lakh ha; this figure is more than 3.75 lakh ha than last week.

Planting of Kharif crops is far behind than the expectations, as monsoon in the South-West is tracking very slowly and the water level is also not sufficient.

In the case of cotton, the sowing is slower, it was 17.6 lakh ha before but this time it is only 14.82 lakh ha. On the other hand, sowing of ground nut has also been less as it was 0.71 lakh ha but currently it's only .35 lakh ha.

Among the pulses, planting of Arhar has decreased, which was 0.22 lakh ha, but this year it's only 0.152 lakh ha, however, the sowing of Urad has increased from 0.151 lakh hectare to 0.238 lakh ha.

In the coming weeks, monsoon may shower more in Central, East, North and North-West parts of the country, which will lead to more planting of rice.