Spurt in wheat sowing pushes rabi area to 338 lakh hectares
Pulses acreage falls with dip in area under gram cultivation
by Our BureauA spurt in wheat planting in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan this week pushed up the overall rabi sowing in the country, with the total sown area reaching 338.20 lakh hectares (lh), marginally lower than the 339.75 lh planted in the corresponding week last year.
Farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have planted wheat in substantially larger areas than what was covered in the same week last year. While wheat has been planted on 37.25 lh in Madhya Pradesh so far, against 28.75 lh in the same period last year, in Rajashtan, it has gone up to 18.28 lh, compared to 15.96 lh last year, showed rabi sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday. However, wheat planting has been marginally lower in other major States such as Punjab and Uttar Pradesh while Haryana maintained more or the less same levels as last year. The total wheat sown area so far is 150.74 lh, up 6.72 per cent from the same week in the previous rabi season.
However, there has been a 10 per cent reduction in pulses sowing with both Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra reporting lesser coverage compared to the previous rabi season. The pulses acreage has shrunk mainly because of a drop in area under gram cultivation, which dropped by 10 per cent to 61.5 lh till this week.
A little over 5 per cent reduction in mustard cultivation has affected the overall oilseeds area. At 60.31 lh, the total oilseeds acreage is 5 per cent lower than the same week last year. Coarse cereals, on the other hand, reported a 5 per cent increase in area mainly because of a 10 per cent increase in jowar sowing, reported mainly from Rajasthan.
Winter rice sowing, too, has picked up, with a significant increase in sowing in Tamil Nadu. Rice sowing currently stands at 8.17 lh, which is nearly 11 per cent higher than the 7.37 lh reported in the corresponding week last year.
Storage level rises
Most of the major reservoirs in the country are maintaining very good storage levels. The 120 major reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission have reported a cumulative storage of 147.02 billion cubic metre, which is 42 per cent more than that in the same week in the previous year.