The Hindu Business Line : Wheat, mustard, chana acreages trail due to dry weather

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s latest Crop Weather Watch Report, farmers had, as on Friday, planted 206.32 lakh hectares (lh) under wheat, against 234.48 lh during the same period last year. The normal total area under wheat is 261.97 lh, while touching a record 279.84 lh last year.

Cumulative acreage has declined in Uttar Pradesh (65.17 lh versus 77.98 lh), Madhya Pradesh (28.10 versus 35.10), Rajasthan (17.12 versus 19.10), Gujarat (8.18 versus 9.22), Maharashtra (7.37 versus 8.56), Bihar (10.57 versus 12.96) and Karnataka (2.06 versus 2.39).

Belated sugarcane crushing

The virtual absence of any rains since August has affected sowing in Mahdya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where wheat is largely rainfed. In Uttar Pradesh, the drop has been ascribed to the belated crushing by sugar mills. Sugarcane occupies about 25 lh in UP, of which roughly 15 lh is accounted for by the ratoon crop that is harvested and crushed during November-January.

While mills normally crush from early November, this time they commenced only from around November 25. That has restricted the scope for farmers to vacate their cane area for planting wheat in time. The area impacted on this count is reckoned at 7-8 lh, i.e. half the ratoon cane.

Shortage of DAP

To add to this, there are reports from the ground of a severe shortage of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), a crucial nutrient required at the time of sowing. While the Centre has claims to have arranged sufficient DAP imports, the lack of distribution infrastructure at the State-level (particularly in UP and Bihar) has led to a shortfall at the farmers’ end.

On the brighter side, wheat acreage has gone up in Punjab (33.48 versus 33.16) and West Bengal (2.75 versus 2.50), while being just marginally lower in Haryana (23.35 versus 23.40) and Uttarakhand(3.21 versus 3.23). Since Punjab and Haryana are high-yielding regions and protected through perennial irrigation networks, the Centre can draw some comfort from the reasonably good coverage in these States. Also, the Punjab and Haryana Governments have been more proactive in ensuring adequate DAP stocks for distribution to farmers.

The Centre’s hopes now mainly rest on more area coming under late sown wheat in eastern UP and Bihar, which could partially offset the declines in M.P., Rajasthan and western UP.

Mustard positive areas

But this optimism may not hold for rapeseed-mustard — the most important rabi oilseed. Progressive area reported is lower this time, at 57.25 lh, against last year’s corresponding 64.27 lh and 65.99 lh for the whole of 2006-07. Acreage has fallen in Rajasthan (23.36 lh against 28.83 lh), Haryana (5.50 lh against 5.97 lh), Gujarat (3.28 lh against 3.59 lh), West Bengal (4 lh against 4.35 lh), while rising in UP (7.78 lh against 7.70 lh) and M.P. (6.70 lh against 6.57 lh).

The total area sown so far under all rabi oilseeds is lower this year at 77.39 lh, over last year’s cumulative figure of 87.29 lh. Besides rapeseed-mustard, acreages have declined for sunflower (from 9.86 to 8.30 lh), groundnut (3.64 to 3.46 lh), safflower (3.36 to 2.82 lh) and linseed (4.60 to 4.21 lh).

In gram (chana), too, there has been a fall in coverage from 75.95 lh to 70.77 lh. This has been more so in M.P. (from 25.84 to 22.11 lh), UP (7.72 to 5.85 lh), Karnataka (7.65 to 6.76 lh) and Maharashtra (10.34 to 10.32 lh). But these have been partly made up through higher plantings in Rajasthan (from 11.19 to 12.68 lh) and Andhra Pradesh (6 to 6.07 lh).

Rabi pulses

The overall rabi pulses area has dipped from 121.46 lh to 113.49 lh, with these being 14.32 to 12.58 lh for lentil (masur), 7.22 to 5.95 lh for peas (matar) and 5.85 to 4.90 lh for kulthi (horsegram). However, extra area has come under urad (from 4.97 to 5.34 lh), moong (2.60 to 4.30 lh) and lathyrus (4.10 to 4.57 lh).

On the coarse cereals front, the area under jowar so far this year, at 44.51 lh, is below the 46.81 lh of the corresponding period of 2006, while going up for maize (from 6.96 to 7.77 lh) and barley (from 6.25 to 6.43 lh).

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