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Buoyed by the substantial uptick in wheat procurement which helped it surpass Punjab as No. 1 in the previous rabi marketing season, Madhya Pradesh planted over an additional 10 lakh hectares (lha) of wheat this season, helping the country to have a record wheat sowing of over 325 lha, which is nearly 11 lha higher than that in the same week last year.
According to data released by the Agriculture Ministry, the total area covered in the current rabi season is nearly 621 lha, nearly 18 lha more than 603 lha covered in the same week in 2019-20.
In addition to Madhya Pradesh, Bihar (2.33 lha higher) and Maharashtra (1.59 lha) planted wheat over same period last year, while Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh covered 2.87 lha and 2.1 lha less area, respectively, till now.
Pulses & oilseeds
Apart from wheat, area of pulses and oilseeds have gone up as compared to the same period last year. For instance, at nearly 155 lha, the area under pulses is nearly 5 per cent more than same week last year. Among the pulses crops, gram coverage is close to 106 lha, which is nearly 6 per cent more than 100 lha in the corresponding week last year.
Oilseeds covered nearly 81 lha, which is 6 per cent more than 76 lha planted in the same period in 2019-20. Rapeseed & mustard, planted over 72 lha — close to 9 per cent more than the corresponding week last year — accounted for much of the increase. Jharkhand and Rajasthan, too, accounted for a substantial chunk of the additional area.
There is decrease in area covered under most major coarse cereals crops whose total area came down by close to 10 per cent to 45 lha. At nearly 25 lh, the area under jowar came down by nearly 11 per cent, while that of maize and barley came down by 8.5 and 9 per cent, respectively. The planting of winter rice is yet to pick up momentum. The area covered so far is less than 15 lha, which is little more than one-third of the total area for the season.
The cumulative water storage in 128 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission on Thursday was 123.88 billion cubic metre (BCM) as compared to 135.79 BCM in the corresponding week last year.
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