Rabi sowing scaled new heights with farmers planting winter crops of over nearly 685 lakh hectares (lha), that is about 3 per cent more than 666 lha covered in the same week last year, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday.

All-time highs

The area under major rabi crops such as wheat, gram and mustard are at all-time highs this year. While wheat is sown over 346 lha compared with 336 lha planted in the same week last year, gram area stood at 112 lha, which is 4.37 per cent more than that in the corresponding period in 2019-20. Mustard acreage, on the other hand, expanded to 74 lha, which is 7 per cent more than 69 lha planted in the previous rabi season.

The total pulses area was more than 167 lha compared to nearly 163 lha in the 2019-20 season. Winter rice cultivation during the week too registered around 17 per cent year-on-year to a little over 35 lha.

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Coarse cereals acreage

The only set of crops that shrunk in area was coarse cereals. As against 56 lha planted in the same period in the last rabi season, the area covered till this week was close to 52 lha. All major rabi coarse cereal crops such as barley, jowar and maize registered a dip in area. At around 27 lha, the area under jowar crop was 10 per cent lower than same week last year.

Water reservoir position and the soil moisture in almost all States are very good. So, the prospect for rabi crops is very good, the Ministry said in a statement.

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