The Hindu Business Line : Dry weather continues to affect rabi sowing

Hope & gloom
Lack of rains since August has affected wheat sowing in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Additional area has come under urad and pulses.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 30 Sowing figures for wheat, rabi oilseeds and pulses continue to lag behind this year, courtesy dry weather in most parts of northern and central India.

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s latest Crop Weather Watch Report, farmers had, as on November 29, planted 145.59 lakh hectares (lh) under wheat compared with 180.17 lh during the same period last year. Acreages have declined in Uttar Pradesh (50.19 lh versus 66.68 lh), Madhya Pradesh (19.34 versus 28.42), Rajasthan (9.96 versus 12.94), Gujarat (four versus 5.90) and Karnataka (1.94 versus 2.31).

Delay in crushing

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

Impacted area

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

On the other hand, acreages have gone up in Punjab (29.65 lh versus 29.42 lh) and Maharashtra (4.64 lh versus 4.59 lh), while being marginally lower in Haryana (19.25 lh versus 20 lh). Since Punjab and Haryana are high-yielding areas and protected through perennial irrigation networks, the Union Government can draw some comfort from coverage not registering any decline in these States.

Counting on late sowing

The Agriculture Ministry is also counting on more area coming under late sown wheat in eastern UP and Bihar, which could partially offset the declines in MP, Rajasthan and western UP.

But this optimism is unlikely to extend to rapeseed-mustard and chana (gram or chickpea) – the country’s most important rabi oilseeds and pulses crops, respectively.

Gram story

Progressive area reported under rapeseed-mustard is lower this time, at 52.76 lh, against last year’s corresponding 61.31 lh. Acreages have fallen in Rajasthan (22.90 lh against 28.26 lh), Haryana (5.50 lh against 5.97 lh), Gujarat (3.05 lh against 3.53 lh) and West Bengal (2.25 lh against 4.35 lh), while rising in MP (6.70 lh against 6.36 lh) and UP (7.36 lh against 7.29 lh).

The same (though less grim) story holds for gram, with overall coverage declining from 61.40 lh to 60.89 lh and more so in MP (from 23.58 to 19.39) and UP (from 6.25 to 5.45. Maharashtra and Karnataka, too, have reported small drops, from 7.78 to 7.73 and from 6.87 to 6.39 respectively. At the same time, these have been somewhat made up by increased planting in Rajasthan (from 9.33 to 11.48) and Andhra Pradesh (4.64 to 5.37).

Other oilseeds

The total area sown so far under all rabi oilseeds is lower this year at 69.70 lh, over last year’s cumulative figure of 81.31 lh. Besides rapeseed-mustard, acreages have also declined for sunflower (9.08 lh to 7.40 lh), groundnut (from 2.79 lh to 2.41 lh), safflower (3.14 lh to 2.69 lh) and linseed (3.81 lh to 3.38 lh).

The overall rabi pulses area, too, has registered a fall from 93.87 lh to 91.55 lh, with these being 10.86 lh to 10.62 lh for lentil (masur), 5.89 lh to 5.21 lh for peas (matar), 4.64 lh to 4.00 lh for kulthi (horsegram), 4.01 lh to 3.49 lh for lathyrus and 1.09 lh to 1.08 lh for moong. However, extra area has come under urad (from 2.40 lh to 2.64 lh) and other pulses (from 3.59 lh to 3.63 lh).

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