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Winter crop sowing in Madhya Pradesh, which received heavy rain towards the fag end of the monsoon season, has so far been subdued, with the State reporting lesser coverage in a number of crops including gram, wheat and mustard, the latest sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry indicated on Friday.
In the country as a whole, rabi planting had been completed on 148.23 lakh hectares (lh) till this week, nearly 11.6 per cent lower than the 167.67 lh planted during the corresponding week last year.
The planting, particularly that of wheat, is sluggish in Punjab, too. Instead of 14.68 lh planted in the corresponding week in the previous year, wheat sowing has taken place only over 7.81 lh so far.
In Madhya Pradesh, the area under wheat till this week was 5.34 lh as against 9.2 lh in the same week last year. The other two major wheat-growing States, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, have more or less done well as far as wheat sowing is concerned. The total wheat area sown so far in the country is about 32.98 lh, 22 per cent lower than the 42.4 lh planted in the same week last year.
Read: Wheat area down by 23 per cent; Punjab, Madhya Pradesh lag behind
One State that has done exceedingly well in terms of planting of rabi crops is Rajasthan, which received good rains this season. Apart from mustard, wheat sowing has also progressed well in the State. Rajasthan has accounted for nearly 46 per cent of mustard/rapeseed sown so far in the country. Among coarse cereals, jowar has covered ground well with the sown area registering a 4.5 per cent increase as compared to the corresponding week last year. Pulses cultivation, on the other hand, is down by 16 per cent at 45.60 lh as compared to 54.20 lh this time last year. While gram cultivation is down 13 per cent, other pulses crops, such as lentil and urad, also reported lower acreage.
Reservoir logs
Meanwhile, the water situation in most reservoirs of the country was reported to be very good. According to the Central Water Commission, the total water storage in 120 major reservoirs that it monitors regularly is 153.472 billion cubic metres (BCM), which is 90 per cent of the live storage capacity. The water storage is around 40 per cent more than what was reported in the corresponding week last year. As many as 116 reservoirs have reported more than 80 per cent of live storage capacity.
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