The area under Rabi crops this year has topped 515 lakh hectare (lh) as of December 8, which is nearly 80 per cent of the normal area. Though the rabi acreage is still down by 3 per cent from 529.82 lh during the same period a year ago, the gap has narrowed as until last week the deficit was 5 per cent.

The deficienty in wheat acreage has considerably narrowed in the past week as the gap has been narrowed to less than one per cent now from 5 per cent until December 1. Latest data show wheat acreage was near 250 lh at 248.94 lh compared with 251.19 lh a year ago, down 0.9 per cent. However, higher area has been reported from Uttar Pradesh by 3.22 lh and Madhya Pradesh 2.88 lh.

Chana, masur down

Winter-grown pulses acreage was 119.16 lh compared with 130.03 lh, down 8.4 per cent with lentil (masur) and gram (chana) acreage trailing. The sowing area of major rabi pulses, chana, is down by 10 per cent to 81.87 lh from 90.91 lh and that of lentil by 4 per cent at 15.76 lh from 16.47 lh.

In coarse cereals, the sowing area has reached 41.48 lh, down by 2 per cent from 42.35 lh. Jowar acreage has been reported at 18.32 lh, dipped by 6 per cent from 19.49 lh and maize acreage up by 2 per cent at 14.61 lh from 14.34 lh year-ago. Barley sowing is at par with last year and reached 7.99 lh.

Mustard rescues oilseeds

Higher sowing of mustard has helped the overall oilseeds sowing look comfortable. The mustard acreage has already exceeded the normal area of 73.06 lh to 89.18 lh, 2 per cent more than 87.24 lh a year ago. All oilseeds rabi acreage has been reported to be at 95.31 lh up from 94.35 lh a year ago. Of this, groundnut sowing is down by 72,000 hectares. Though groundnut is a kharif crop, it is also grown on about 7 lh during winter, mainly Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Rabi paddy acreage reached 10.74 lh against 11.9 lh a year ago and the maximum coverage has been reported from Tamil Nadu.

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