"Monsoon was excess or normal in 74 per cent district still the first week of August against 68 per cent in the same period last year. It resulted in more area under cultivation of grains like rice, cereals and oilseeds, brightening the prospects of a better crop," Special Secretary, Agriculture Ministery, J N L Srivastava, told PTI.

According to the information recived till August 7, area under rice cultivation had gone up by 18 lakh hectares (LH) to 233.75 LH this year from 215.90 LH in the same period last year, he said.

Rice sowing was still on in several parts of the country and the current trend indicated that it could cross the last year's total area of 404 LH, Srivastava said adding the normal area (average of last five years) for Kharif rice crop was 399 LH.

Cultivated area under other crops such as coarse cereals, oilseeds, pulses, jute, soyabean and sugarcane was higher this year compared to area sown in the same period last year.

However, area under cotton cultivation has gone down this year due to shifting by farmers in favour of paddy in states like Punjab and Haryana, he said.

Area under rice cultivation has gone up to 24.5 LH in Punjab compared to 23.5 LH last year, Srivastava said, adding that it had crossed the normal area of 22.8 LH.

Rice sowing in Haryana is complete and a total of 10.5 LH area has gone for paddy cultivation in the state against a normal area of 9.1 LH.There were reports that 40.6 LH rice area in Madhya Pradesh had gone for paddy which was substantially higher than the last year's figure of 25.6 LH. The normal area for the state is about 56.7 LH.

Prospects were better in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Orissa as both the states have reported an increase in the area under paddy cultivation over the previous year, Srivastava said. Better rains in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have resulted in about 30 LH more area under coarse cereal sowing during the Kharif season.

A total of 158.2 LH area has gone for coarse cereals compared to 128 LH in the same period last year. Normal area for the grain was about 240 LH which would be met as sowing is on in several states, he said.

Oilseeds cropping is also better this year as 125.28 LH area has already been sown against the last year's sowing of 115.9 LH. It is expected that it would be close to the normal area of 156 LH by the end of the sowing season.Output of pulses was also expected to be better this year, area under the crop had gone up to 89.9 LH compared to 78.3 LH till August seven last year. Normal area for pulses was 105 LH which was expected to be met this year, Srivastava said.

Area under Jute was higher at 8.0 LH this year against 6.6 LH in the same period a year ago. The normal area for the crop was 9.0 LH. Prospects of sugarcane was also better this time which was evident from 41.58 LH area as against 39.7 LH last year and 41 LH of the normal area.

But the area under cotton has declined to 69 LH during the currest Kharif season from 73 LH last year due to shift in favour of paddy by the farmers in the states such as Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Due to waterlogging in several parts of Punjab, farmers opted for paddy instead of cotton, Srivastava said, adding that the area for cotton in Punjab was 5.50 LH against 4.75 LH in the same period last year.