The Hindu Business Line : Oilseeds acreage dips

According to the latest report of the Agriculture Ministry's Crop Weather Watch Group released here on Monday, the cumulative area under oilseeds for the week ended August 4, at 143.65 lakh hectares (lh), is lower than the 153.62 lh covered during this period last year. Groundnut that has seen a significant decline from 50.89 to 40.35 lh, with acreages falling in Gujarat (from 18 to 16.44 lh), Andhra Pradesh (13.69 to 7.13 lh) and Karnataka (6.74 to 4.72 lh).

Soyabean at record

On the other hand, the area under soyabean has already crossed an all-time-high 77.61 lh, against the corresponding 2005 coverage of 74.51 lh, with Madhya Pradesh (from 40.49 to 44.55 lh) and Maharashtra (from 22.80 to 23.07 lh) reporting increases, while falling in Rajasthan (from 6.84 to 5.87 lh). In sunflower, too, the overall area is higher (from 6.04 to 6.92 lh), mainly due to Karnataka (from 4.25 to 5.34 lh).

Among other oilseeds, there has been drop in area under sesamum from 14.01 to 13.27 lh (from 3.78 to 3.41 lh in Gujarat and from 3.77 to 2.70 lh in Rajasthan); under castor from 6.21 to 4.47 lh (from 3.35 to 1.34 lh in Gujarat); and under nigerseed from 1.95 to 1.03 lh (from 1.16 to 0.03 lh in Chattisgarh).

But on the whole, good rains in the crucial month of July have ensured a step-up in sowing levels of rice (paddy), maize, cotton and sugarcane.

The total area under rice reported so far, at 226.47 lh, is higher than the 220.49 lh covered during the period in the previous season.

The increase has been mainly in Uttar Pradesh (from 42.67 to 43.69 lh), Chhattisgarh (from 25.59 to 26.46 lh), Orissa (from 23.22 to 24.15 lh) and Bihar (from 13.15 to 17.33 lh), while falling from 26.42 to 25.70 lh in Punjab, from 20.88 to 20.20 lh in West Bengal and from 10.35 to 9.80 lh in Haryana.

There has been a similar rise in progressive area under maize from 63.80 to 68.78 lh, led by Rajasthan (from 9.17 to 9.41 lh), UP (from 8.34 to 9.39), MP (from 8.07 to 8.76 lh), Karnataka (from 7.27 to 7.39 lh), Maharashtra (from 4.62 to 4.78 lh) and Gujarat (from 4.22 to 4.51 lh). In contrast, bajra coverage has declined from 68.99 to 66.02 lh, because of Rajasthan (from 33.47 to 30.13 lh), even while going up from 12.20 to 13.62 lh for Maharashtra.

Jowar sowing

Madhya Pradesh has registered higher sowing under jowar (from 4.89 to 5.47 lh), but this has again been offset by a fall from 4.76 to 3.82 lh in Rajasthan and from 14.72 to 13.34 lh in Maharashtra. As a result, the overall jowar coverage has dipped from 33.72 to 32 lh. Cumulative area under coarse cereals is, thus, marginally lower this year (178.63 lh) compared to last year's 180.18 lh.

In pulses, there has been an overall rise in progressive coverage from 81.12 to 89.21 lh, led by arhar (from 27.72 to 31.01 lh), moong (from 19.03 to 22.24 lh) and urad (from 15.28 to 19.91 lh).

In cotton, area reported so far, at 81.81 lh, is substantially more than last year's corresponding 70.11 lh. The rise has been mainly in Maharashtra (from 21.91 to 30.01 lh), Gujarat (from 16.74 to 21.87 lh) and Punjab (from 5.57 to 6.18 lh), while Andhra Pradesh (from 7.03 to 6.69 lh), Haryana (from 5.83 to 5.23 lh), MP (from 6.2 to 5.87 lh) and Rajasthan (from 4.51 to 3.04 lh) have recorded declines.

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