Bengaluru: With little over a month left in the kharif window, Karnataka has managed to sow just 36.5 lakh hectares against a targeted 84.1 lakh hectares — a coverage of only 43% — agriculture department data for up to July 3 shows.The season’s uneven start, widely attributed to patchy and delayed monsoon across the state’s dryland belts creating a drought-like situation, has left cereal and pulse farmers trailing behind schedule, even as cotton and sugarcane growers are sowing ahead of a normal year.District-level numbers reveal just how unevenly the deficit has spread. Chikkaballapur has managed 9% percent of its normal sowing coverage, the lowest in the state, followed by Bengaluru Rural at 24% and areas around Kolar showing similar stress. Bengaluru Urban and Dakshina Kannada, both traditionally low-acreage districts, also report poor sowing.At the other end, northern Karnataka’s canal- and river-irrigated tracts are sowing comfortably ahead of normal. Raichur leads the state at 157% of its normal coverage, followed by Yadgiri, Haveri, Dharwad and Gadag.Statewide, rainfed area accounts for 25.2 lakh hectares of the total sown so far, against just 11.2 lakh hectares under irrigation. This year’s progress trails last year’s 50.6 lakh hectares by nearly 28%, though it still runs close to the five-year normal at 94% — suggesting the shortfall has yet to turn into a drought-scale collapse.The deficit shows up starkly in the state’s staple foodgrain crops. Cereals have covered just 27% of target and pulses 44%, pulling combined foodgrain coverage to 34%. Ragi sowing has all but stalled at 1% of its 8.2 lakh hectare target, and wheat sowing remains at zero.“But ragi follows a similar pattern. Last year, the sowing as of July 3 was at 0.09% of target. So compared to normal or five-year average, ragi sowing this year is at 84%, a deficit of 16%,” one official pointed out.Maize has fared better, at 48% of target and 86% of its normal coverage. Among pulses, green gram is running ahead of its five-year average, while tur, the state’s largest pulse crop, stands at 74% of normal.Oilseeds sit at 53% of target, with sunflower outperforming at 130% of normal even as groundnut lags at just 48%. Commercial crops are the clear standout: at 76% of target and 121% of normal coverage, cotton alone is running at 141% of its five-year average — a sign that farmers are leaning on irrigated, cash-generating crops amid the rainfall uncertainty.Akhanda Rajya Raitha Sangha state president KS Sudheer Kumar said: “While there’s been some rain in Belagavi, coastal and Malnad regions, there’s deficit elsewhere. In Mandya for example, there’s been nearly no rain. The govt has been telling farmers to be watchful and sow only if there’s rain. Overall, if July is also like June, we’re staring at trouble.”Meteorologist and disaster management expert GS Srinivasa Reddy, former director, KSNDMC, told TOI that the forecast has been below normal, and rain is unlikely to extend beyond July second week.“Coastal, Malnad and some adjoining districts have received rain, but even there it has been below normal. July is the most important month. The state received the maximum rainfall in July and if it goes below normal, then we could be looking at a drought situation, although there are multiple parameters to consider before officially declaring drought,” he said.
