The rabi acreage this year is 8 lakh hectares (lh) higher so far, from the corresponding period last year, and with conducive weather continuing, there may not be concerns on yield, and potentially help the country to have another year of bumper harvest.

Haryana and Rajasthan have reported completion of sowing while in another two weeks the window will be completed in many other states, officials said.

Sowing of all rabi crops has increased 1 per cent to 664.59 lh as on January 14 from 656.44 lh in the corresponding period last year, the Agriculture Ministry said releasing the weekly update Friday. All the crops conditions are normal, the update said.

Wheat acreage is down by 1.3 per cent at 336.48 lakh hectares (lh) as of January 14 from 340.48 lh in the year-ago period, while winter paddy has declined by 18.5 per cent to 19.82 lh from 24.33 lh. Coarse and Nutri cereals’ area has dipped 2.2 per cent to 47.82 lh from 48.91 lh; and that of pulses is flat at 160.2 lh. Oilseeds acreage is up by 21.8 per cent to 100.27 lh from 82.34 lh, mainly due to higher area at 90.45 lh (up 24 per cent) under mustard.

“There is no impact of the third wave of Covid 19 on the progress of area coverage as of date,” said a senior official of the ministry. The overall progress of crop sowing progress is highly encouraging, though some damages to crops have been reported by a few states the official said.

As major growing states of winter-sown crops have received good rainfall recently, it will be beneficial for the crops. According to the latest data as of January 11, Madhya Pradesh has reported damage in 48,871 hectares area, Rajasthan in 69,375 hectares, Uttar Pradesh 1,11,700 hectares, Haryana 97,676 hectares, Maharashtra 5,276 hectares due to heavy rains in the past few days. Punjab is yet to assess its damage.

“Most of the States are still expected to achieve the targeted area of pulses within this month. Sowing and transplanting of paddy will be carried out in southern and eastern regions till the first week of February. On the other hand, wheat sowing is almost completed. The area coverage under rabi crops will be finalized by the end of January and progress of preliminary summer crop area coverage will be reported from the first week of next month,” the official said.

According to Central Water Commission, the storage in 137 reservoirs in the country as on January 13 was 101 per cent of the corresponding period of last year and 122 per cent of the average of the last ten years. The country has received 29.4 mm rainfall during January 1-14, which is more than four times of normal, said Indian Meteorological Department.

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