As farmers look for alternative crops, rabi area under foodgrains drops by 2%

One of the striking features of this year’s rabi sowing is that many farmers do not want to stick to growing foodgrains and have opted for alternatives. This is probably the start of a new trend as the total area under foodgrain crops — wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals — has declined by 1.8 per cent to 587.1 lakh hectares (lh) as of Friday from 597.58 lh in the corresponding period a year ago.

But, the overall cultivation of pulses is marginally higher than last year, thanks to a 4 per cent increase in the area under gram (chana).

Despite the drop in area under foodgrain crops, the overall sowing increased 1.2 per cent to 689.14 lh (680.77 lh) mainly due to a 23 per cent surge in the area under oilseeds.

Of the 9.8 lh covered under all crops during the past one week, as much as 4.55 lh was under paddy, according to latest data released by the Union Agriculture Ministry. Wheat acreage increased by 1.55 lh, pulses by 2.08 lh, coarse cereals by about 74,000 hectares and oilseeds by 88,000 hectares during the past one week.

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Crop diversification

“The sowing is almost complete, though paddy coverage will continue and there may be some overlapping with summer (zaid season) sowing. As seen in Telangana, the government would like to focus on crop diversification particularly from winter-grown paddy in next few years,” an Agriculture Ministry official said.

After a call by the State government, many farmers in Telangana have shifted to maize from paddy in the current season.

As reported by BusinessLine, a positive shift is taking place in many States this year with growers switching over to other crops from wheat. In Madhya Pradesh, farmers in relatively water-stressed areas have sown mustard and in districts like Ujjain and Dewas diversification to onion and garlic has been noticed. In Rajasthan, too, the shift from wheat to mustard has been observed; while in Gujarat farmers have moved to chana.

Wheat sowing has reached 342.37 lh (345.86 lh) and paddy acreage declined 19.3 per cent to 28.16 lh.

Pulses, coarse cereals

Overall winter-grown pulses acreage reached at 166.43 lh, which is 1 per cent higher from 164.85 lh a year ago. The area under gram is up by 3.9 per cent 114.27 lh and has also exceeded last year’s total of 112 lh. Masur acreage, too, is up 1 per cent at 17.64 lh. But all other pulses like urad, kulthi and fieldpeas have reported drop in acreage.

The acreage under all coarse cereals have dropped 3.53 per cent at 50.14 lh (51.97 lh). Maize sowing is up 7.9 per cent at 18.37 lh from 17.02 lh year-ago. Barley is a tad lower at at 6.78 lh ( 6.87 lh).

Total area under oilseeds has reached 102.04 lh from 83.19 lh year-ago, up by 22.66 per cent. The main crop mustard is up by 25.06 per cent at 91.44 lh from 73.12 lh year-ago and that of groundnut by 1.62 per cent at 4.89 lh from 4.81 lh.

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