The Hindu Business Line : Rabi sowing sees drop in coverage of major crops

Tracking progress
Dry weather and lack of rains in central parts of the country are among the reasons for poor coverage of wheat.
Good weather in Punjab and Haryana holds key for a better crop prospects.

Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Dec. 28 Wheat planting continues to trail during the current rabi season, with farmers sowing 249.34 lakh hectares (lh) so far compared with 263.31 lh covered during the corresponding period of last season and 279.84 lh for the whole of 2006-07.

Main factors

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s latest Crop Weather Watch report released here on Friday, acreages have dropped in Uttar Pradesh (from 88.83 lh to 80.36 lh), Madhya Pradesh (38.45 lh to 33.08 lh), Rajasthan (21.19 lh to 20.30 lh), Bihar (19.68 lh to 19.21 lh), Maharashtra (9.82 lh to 9.80 lh), Himachal Pradesh (3.61 lh to 2.88 lh), Uttarakhand (3.23 lh to 3.21 lh), Karnataka (2.40 lh to 2.25 lh), Jammu & Kashmir (2.07 lh to 1.07 lh) and Chhattisgarh (1.49 lh to 1.09 lh ).

The main factors that have impacted coverage are dry weather and the virtual absence of rains since August in central India (especially M.P.), belated start of crushing by sugar mills in UP (preventing farmers from vacating cane area for planting wheat) and shortage of crucial nutrients such as di-ammonium phosphate at the farmers’ end.

Succour

On the brighter though, Punjab has reported higher sowing (from 33.20 lh to 34.75 lh) and so have Haryana (23.70 lh to 23.85 lh), Gujarat (10.89 lh to 12.95 lh) and West Bengal (3.50 lh to 4.0 lh). The extra 1.55 lh covered in Punjab is significant because it would translate into an additional 6.5 lakh tonnes of wheat, taking last year’s average yield of 4.2 tonnes per hectare. The Centre’s hope is that the increased acreage in Punjab and Haryana – which is an irrigated high-yielding belt – will make up for the reduced area in M.P. and UP, where average per hectare productivity stood at 1.8 and 2.7 tonnes, respectively last year.

Oilseeds

But this would be subject to good weather – an extended winter, no abnormal rise in temperatures till late March and no hailstorms or untimely rains.

The prospects are less rosy when it comes to rabi oilseeds, particularly rapeseed-mustard.

Progressive area reported under this most important rabi oilseed crop is lower this time, at 59.55 lh, against last year’s corresponding 65.36 lh and 65.99 lh for the whole of 2006-07. Acreage has fallen in Rajasthan (23.98 lh against 28.96 lh), Haryana (5.50 against 5.97) and Gujarat (3.39 against 3.60), while rising in UP (7.95 against 7.70), M.P. (6.70 against 6.69) and West Bengal (4.50 against 4.35).

Sunflower droops

The total area sown so far under all rabi oilseeds is lower this year at 81.94 lh, over last year’s cumulative figure of 90.43 lh. Besides rapeseed-mustard, acreages have declined for sunflower (from 10.33 lh to 8.63 lh), safflower (3.38 lh to 2.87 lh) and linseed (4.95 lh to 4.69 lh), while rising for groundnut (from 4.40 lh to 4.53 lh).

In gram (chana), too, there has been a fall in coverage from 76.52 lh to 75.12 lh. This has been more so in M.P. (from 26.63 lh to 23.32 lh), U.P. (7.72 lh to 6.02 lh) and Karnataka (7.73 lh to 6.97 lh). But these have been partly compensated by higher plantings in Rajasthan (from 11.64 lh to 12.84), Maharashtra (10.34 lh to 11.08 lh) and Andhra Pradesh (6.0 lh to 6.33 lh).

Coarse cereals

The overall progressive rabi pulses area has dipped from 124.32 lh to 121.32 lh, with these being from 14.74 lh to 13.59 lh for lentil (masur), 7.52 lh to 6.54 lh for peas (matar) and 5.98 lh to 5.39 lh for kulthi (horsegram). However, extra area has come under urad (from 5.42 lh to 6.75 lh), moong (3.0 lh to 3.16 lh) and lathyrus (4.51 lh to 4.89 lh).

On the coarse cereals front, the area under jowar so far this year, at 46.16 lh, is below the 47.12 lh of the corresponding period of 2006, while it has increased for maize (from 7.41 lh to 9.78 lh) and barley (from 6.39 lh to 6.89 lh).