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A surge in sowing in Madhya Pradesh (MP) last week has improved the acreage under wheat in the country even though the overall planting of crops still languished at 546 lakh hectares (lh), about 3.5 per cent lower than the corresponding week last year, according to the rabi sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday.
Barring wheat, all major crops have reported lesser acreage this week as compared to the same period in the previous rabi season of 2017-18.
Rice lags behind
Rice sowing has been particularly bad with a shortfall of 28 per cent as against the same period last year. The drop in rice sowing in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh is particularly responsible for bringing down the sown area to 11.81 lh as against 16.45 lh in 2017-18.
Pulses, the second most important rabi crop after wheat, too reported more than 6 per cent shortfall in planting. While the sowing was normal or more in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, three drought-hit States — Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh — witnessed a drop in planting this year.
Wheat sowing has been poor as compared to the previous season in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra, but an increase in acreage Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan made up for the shortage. Madhya Pradesh reported almost 25 per cent increase in area over 2017-18.
Oilseeds, cereals
Mustard cultivation in Rajasthan has been impressive this season and this has helped reducing the shortfall in the overall oilseeds acreage across the country. Among the States which reported significant reduction in oilseeds cultivation are Karnataka and Jharkhand.
Coarse cereals too reported 17 per cent lower area in cultivation. As against 50.91 lh covered till this time last year, the area covered so far is 42.22 lh.
Most of the shortfall was reported from Maharashtra where coarse cereals cultivation was down by over 10 lh.
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