Total area under rabi crops this season inched closer to that sown in the previous year, even though there was a four per cent drop in wheat cultivation, data released by the Agriculture Ministry showed on Friday.

At 617.79 lakh hectares (lh), the cumulative rabi acreage this year till date was a tad lower than 620.99 lh sown in the corresponding period last year.

The acreage under wheat came down by 8.68 lh in Madhya Pradesh, which experienced deficient rains this season. The total area under wheat was 298.67 lh (311.17 lh).

The acreage of oilseeds registered a slight improvement as compared to the previous week, but continued to be 3.6 per cent lower than previous year’s 82.08 lh. Coarse cereal, which has been covered on 54.58 lh so far, slipped further since last week.

A robust 40 per cent increase in rice cultivation was seen on account of better acreage reported from south Indian States that pushed up the total area under rice to 22.32 lh (15.99 lh).

The pulses acreagewas better this time with farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat setting aside more area for pulses. The area under pulses was up 4.72 per cent at 163.11 lh (155.76 lh).

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