As the sowing of all rabi crops except paddy is coming to a close, farmers’ message is that they will prefer to stick to a crop which is least susceptible to government controls and can provide them with the best price. The rise in the acreage of mustard is more than that of competing crops such as wheat and chana (gram) this year. it may end up a tad lower than 100 lakh hectares (lh).

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s weekly update released on Friday, the total area under all crops has increased by 2.9 per cent to 696.35 lh against 676.97 lh in the year-ago period. The coverage of wheat has gone up by 0.4 per cent to 341.13 lh from 339.87 lh a year ago and chana acreage is down by 1.6 per cent to 110.91lh from 112.65 lh.

Yield higher too

On the other hand, mustard acreage is up by 7.7 per cent at 97.10 lh from 90.18 lh year-ago. Sources said the acreage in the year-ago period is not the actual data, but rather the provisional weekly data collected last year. The actual sowing area under mustard in the entire season in 2021-22 was 80.58 lh after reconciliation of data, sources said.

“Even if final area reaches at 90 lh this year (after reconciliation), it will be a big increase, compared to only 68-69 lh in 2019-20. Besides, the productivity has also been increasing regularly with the adoption of newer varieties and better crop management practices,” said an Agriculture Ministry official. He said mustard prices are stable for the last two seasons and have ruled above minimum support prices (MSPs) as the government disallowed blending (mixing) of any other edible oil with it.

“Farmers know that mustard rates may be around that level when they harvest the current crop whereas the high prices of wheat may not sustain. Wheat prices could drop to MSP levels when the new crop arrives in mandis as the Centre buys the cereal at that benchmark price,” said S K Singh, an agriculture scientist. The government has fiscal constraints to pay more than MSP and since it is the biggest buyer of wheat, procuring 35-40 per cent of annual production, Singh said.

Rates of chana also depend to a large extent on government policy and it has already allowed the import of certain pulses until next year, Singh said.

Paddy area up 33%

Mandi prices of wheat currently rule at ₹2,560-2,648 per quintal in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh whereas mustard is sold at ₹5,609-6,219 per quintal and chana at ₹4,522-5,261 per quintal in these States. The MSP for the current season has been fixed at ₹5,335/quintal in chana, ₹2,125/quintal in wheat and ₹5,450/quintal in mustard.

Traders in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, the largest producer with 50 per cent share in acreage, are said to have contracted to buy mustard at ₹5,900-6,000/quintal for April delivery.

Meanwhile, rabi-grown paddy acreage has increased by 33.5 per cent to 31.54 lh as of January 19 compared with 23.64 lh in the year-ago period. Pulses acreage has risen 0.3 per cent to 164.12 lh from 163.70 lh while coarse cereals have increased by 4.2 per cent to 51.46 lh from 49.36 lh. In the case of oilseeds, the area has surged to 108.11 lh from 100.40 lh a year ago, registering 7.7 per cent growth.

The acreage under masur (lentil) is up by 5.8 per cent at 18.46 lh from 17.45 lh and that of maize by 18.9 per cent to 21.09 lh from 17.74 lh. The coverage of barley, which is mainly used by the distilleries for bear manufacturing, has jumped 9.5 per cent to 7.42 lh from 6.78 lh.

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