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With wheat, coarse cereals and rice registering double-digit increase in acreage over the previous season, the total rabi sown area till the end of the week climbed to 625 lakh hectares (lh), nearly 8 per cent more than 578.47 lh planted in the corresponding week last year.
According to latest rabi sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday, wheat, which accounts for more than half the sown area, moved to 326.46 lh, because of an increase in planting in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. While MP planted wheat in an additional area of 20 lh, Gujarat and Rajasthan in nearly 5 lh each and Maharashtra 4 lh, over the same period last year. The area under under wheat during the same week in the previous year was 293.81 lh.
The area under pulses cultivation too went up by nearly 5 per cent to 151.26 lh, as against 145.42 planted in the same week last year. Gram, which recorded an increase of over 8 per cent to top 102 lh, accounted for this increase. There was substantial increase in gram cultivation in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, which is enough to offset the drop in gram acreage in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Better jowar sowing in Maharashtra, the State which accounted for more than a third of total coarse cereals area in the country, pushed up the total coarse cereals planting by nearly 13 per cent to over 51 lh. Maharastra increased its coarse cereals area by 53 per cent to 19 lh as against 12.4 lh in the same week last year.
With Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – major mustard-growing States – maintaining more or less similar area under the major rabi oil crop, the area under oilseeds remained at 77.68 lh, a tad lower than 78.43 lh in the corresponding week last year.
There is a 12 per cent increase in winter rice sowing with the total area going up to 18.55 lh, because of increased planting reported from Tamil Nadu and Telangana. At 9.9 lh, Tamil Nadu accounted for more than 50 per cent of the total rice area.
Water storage in reservoirs across the country continues to be good. According to a bulletin released by the Central Water Commission on Thursday, 120 major reservoirs in the country have a cumulative storage of 130.28 billion cubic metre (BCM) of water, nearly 53 per cent more than 85.04 BCM in tha same week last year.
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