The Hindu Business Line : Wheat, barley acreage gains as rabi sowing picks up

The recent rains in the central parts seem to be playing a key role in rabi sowing with farmers in Madhya Pradesh going in for large-scale coverage of wheat and mustard (rapeseed).

In fact as sowing is in progress, data from the Agriculture Ministry show that barring wheat and barley, the acreage in other crops is down.

So far, wheat has been sown on 93.94 lakh hectares (lh) against 85.68 lh during the corresponding period a year ago. In Madhya Pradesh, 18.54 lh have been brought under wheat against 10.36 lh last year.

The area under cultivation is up in Uttar Pradesh also, where the crop has been sown on 20.72 lh (16.23 lh). However, the acreage in Haryana (15.3 lh v 16.5 lh) and Punjab (19 vs 24.6 lh) is lower.

Mustard

Mustard, the major rabi oilseed crop, has been sown on 54.47 lh against 56.25 lh last year. In Madhya Pradesh, 8.13 lh (7.3 lh) have been covered but there is a drop of over 5 lh in Rajasthan (20.65 versus 26.07 lh).

The area under groundnut has dropped to 2.56 lh (2.72 lh), that of safflower to 2.3 lh (2.46 lh) and sunflower to 5.62 lh (8.09 lh).

Overall acreage in oilseeds trails at 68.39 lh against 72.79 lh.

On the coarse cereals front, the coverage of barely has increased to 3.48 lh from 2.54 lh.

Sowing in jowar is down to 40.31 lh (45.98 lh), and that in maize to 2.40 lh (2.62 lh).

Rains since the beginning of this month have ensured a surplus. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have benefitted from the surplus. The advent of Cyclone Phyan last week has helped improve soil moisture in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has gained from the rain last month.

Dry period

Wheat acreage in Punjab and Haryana is down mainly as these States have had a dry period in the last two months. But the rise in Uttar Pradesh, the largest producer, and Madhya Pradesh should help.

At a time when the kharif rice output has been projected 15 million tonnes lower, the Centre is looking to make up to some extent from the rabi sowing. It is also looking at wheat to ease the pressure on cereals demand.

For the rabi marketing season starting April, the Centre has fixed a target of 82 million tonnes of wheat production.

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