New Delhi: Karnataka has seen area under pulses jump by 42 per cent to 5.15 lakh hectares so far in the 2016-17 kharif season on the back of good rains in the state after two years of successive droughts. Not just pulses, area sown to paddy, coarse cereals, oil seeds and sugarcane so far came in much higher as against the same period of the 2015-16 kharif season. Sowing of kharif (summer) crops begins with the onset of the South-West monsoon from June. Harvesting starts from October.

As per the latest data released by the Union Agriculture Ministry, farmers in Karnataka have sown pulses in 5.15 lakh hectares as on today of the ongoing 2016-17 kharif season compared with 3.63 lakh hectares a year earlier. Tur area has risen to 2.34 lakh hectares from the earlier 0.74 lakh hectares and moongs has gone up to 1.96 lakh hectares from 1.66 lakh hectares while urads has edged up to 0.43 lakh hectares from 0.42 lakh hectares in the said period. "Good rains in the state and announcement of higher support price are encouraging farmers to grow pulses this time. There has been a shift in area to pulses," a senior ministry official said.

Karnataka is among 11 states that faced drought conditions over the last two years. Among other crops, paddy -- the main kharif crop -- has been sown in 1.01 lakh hectares as on today of this kharif season as against 0.99 lakh hectares a year earlier. Coarse cereal area has risen to 5.48 lakh hectares from the earlier 3.17 lakh hectares while that of oil seeds jumped to 3.38 lakh hectares from 2.45 lakh hectares in the said period.

Among cash crops, sugarcane has been planted in 2.84 lakh hectares so far this season, slightly higher than 2.68 lakh hectares in the year-ago period. However, cotton area was down at 0.82 lakh hectares so far as against 2.08 lakh hectares in the same period last kharif season, the data showed.