Higher than usual planting of wheat, pulses and oilseeds has pushed up the area under rabi season till Friday to 565 lakh hectares (lha), nearly 4.7 per cent higher than around 539 lha sown in the corresponding week last year, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry.

The area under wheat till this week is 294 lha, which is 5.5 per cent more than around 279 lha planted in the same week last year. Madhya Pradesh, which planted an additional 11 lha, Maharashtra (2.4 lha) and Gujarat (1.67 lha) accounted not only for the increase, but also covered the lower planting in Rajasthan and Haryana.

At 141 lha, the pulses area is up by nearly 7 per cent, thanks to an over 10 per cent in gram area which covered nearly 98 lha. Maharashtra (which planted 18.59 lha) as against last season’s 13.40 lh and Gujarat (which has a gram area of 7.5 lha) against last year’s 2.75 lh, accounted for most of this increase in pulses cultivation.

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The area under oilseeds crops is up by 6 per cent to 77 lha mainly due to an increase mustard-rapeseed area, which went up 8.4 per cent to 70 lha till this week. Jharkhand with an additional area of 1.7 lh and Rajasthan with 1.28 lh accounted for the increase.

All major coarse cereals are planted in lower areas taking the total area down by over 5 per cent to a little over 41 lh whereas winter rice is planted 11.39 lh, which is around 8.5 per cent lower than that in the same week last year.

Meanwhile, 128 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission has a cumulative water storage of 131 billion cubic metre (BCM), which is nearly 12 BCM lower than around 142 BCM in the corresponding week last year.

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