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Sluggishness in wheat sowing in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan has brought down the total area of cultivation during the current rabi crop by 1 per cent to 565.79 lakh hectares (lh) as compared to 571.47 lh in the corresponding period last year, according to the official sowing data released on Friday.
Wheat trailsThe total area under wheat crop so far was 273.85 lh — 5.8 per cent lower than last year’s 290.74 lh.
While Madhya Pradesh reported a shortfall of 7.76 lh as compared to corresponding period in the previous rabi season, Uttar Pradesh reported a 4.93 lh dip and Rajasthan a 2.45 lh drop in area respectively. Among other two major wheat-growing States, wheat acreage in Punjab just managed to cross the previous seasons’ corresponding acreage of 34.70 lh, but that in Haryana is marginally down.
The crops that have sprung surprises, however, were pulses and rice.
Pulses, rice upThe area under pulses cultivation reported so far stood at 150.63 lh — nearly a 9 per cent rise from previous season’s 138.34 lh. An additional acreage of 6.7 lh in Madhya Pradesh, 3.82 lh in Karnataka and 2.12 lh in Andhra Pradesh accounted for much of this increase.
The rabi rice area so far this year was 41 per cent more than 11.55 lh last year.
The increase was reported mainly from Tamil Nadu which planted the cereal on an additional area of 2.93 lh and from Andhra Pradesh which brought an additional 1.46 lh under rice cultivation as compared to the corresponding period last year.
Dip in oilseedsOilseeds, on the other hand, continue to be an area of concern. Its area shrunk by 6.65 per cent to 74.27 lh (79.56 lh). Most of this decline in area was reported from Rajasthan where total area under oilseeds has dropped by 7 lh.
There was a marginal 1 per cent drop in the acreage of coarse cereals till date. The total acreage of coarse cereals was 50.71 lh (51.28 lh).
The area under coarse cultivation in Maharashtra was 4.28 lh lower than the same period last year. The shortfall was somewhat brought down by 2.32 lh increase in acreage in Karnataka.
Storage levelsThe water levels in reservoirs across the country were satisfactory, according to data released by the Central Water Commission on Thursday.
The live storage capacity of 91 reservoirs in the country was 87.66 billion cubic metres, which is 54 per cent of the total capacity.
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