<span style="color: #222222;">Sowing of the Summer Crops has progressed satisfactorily despite the difficulties experienced due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. According  to the Ministry of Agriculture, the total area under the Summer Crops including Rice, Pulses, Coarse Cereals and Oil Seeds cultivation has registered  an increase of 11.64 lakh hectare over last year. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Ministry said, as against a total cultivated area of 37.12 lakh hectares in the year 2018-19, the</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">summer crops have been sown in an area of 48.76 lakh hectare  in the fiscal year 2019-20.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Among the Summer Crops, Rice is the main driver of growth in cultivable area, clocking a robust 8.77 per cent  increase in Sown area. All other crops have also  registered increase in Sown area below one per cent, barring Ragi coarse cereal which has registered a marginal decline of 0.06 per cent  over the last year.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">About 32.58 lakh hectare  area coverage under Summer Rice has been reported compared to 23.81 lakh hectare  during the corresponding period of last year. The area has been reported mainly from West Bengal, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala .</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In case of pulses about 3.97 lakh hectare  area coverage  has been reported compared to 3.01 lakh hectare a during the corresponding period of last year. Among Coarse cereals, about 5.54 lakh ha area coverage has been reported compared to 4.33 lakh hectare  during the corresponding period of last year. While among Oilseeds, about 6.66 lakh hectare sown area has been reported, up from 5.97 lakh hectare during the corresponding period last year. </span><br />