The area under wheat during the ongoing season has crossed the normal acreage of 307.32 lakh hectares (lh). It has also narrowed the deficit against last year’s coverage with a gap dipping to less than 6 lh until Friday. The government is confident of a good harvest, even if not higher than last year.

The sowing deficit under wheat has declined to 2 per cent as of December 22 from 3 per cent until December 15. The latest data show that wheat acreage has reached 308.667 lh compared with 314.42 lh a year ago. As the sowing of wheat is continuing in full swing, 24.52 lh got covered last week.

Chana coverage slips

Area sown under all rabi crops during 2023 has reached 606.86 lh until December 22, which is nearly 94 per cent of the normal area of 648.33 lh. As it is still down by 3 per cent from 624.03 lh during the corresponding period a year ago, the gap may narrow to 1-2 per cent at the end of season mainly due to decline in pulses acreage, experts said.

Rabi pulses acreage has reached 137.13 lh compared with 148.53 lh, down by 8 per cent as gram’s (chana) acreage has been consistently lower throughout. The lentils (masur) area, which was down as on December 15, has improved and reached 17.97 lh, a tad higher from 17.77 lh a year ago. The sowing area of major rabi pulse — gram — is down by 9 per cent at 94.03 lh from 103.35 lh. So far, 93 per cent of normal area of 100.92 lh under gram has been covered.

Late kharif harvest

A senior government official attributed the lower pulses acreage in some States to late harvesting of kharif crops, diversion to other crops and deficit in soil moisture. During the past week, out of the 8.59 lh area under all pulses sown, 5.54 lh was only under gram. The sowing window for gram is normally up to end of December, except in Rajasthan where it continues in January.

There is about 2 lh lower area in Rajasthan and about 2 lh higher acreage in Madhya Pradesh. But the lower gram acreage in Maharashtra and Karnataka together by over 5 lh is unlikely to be offset by other States. Maharashtra and Karnataka face rain deficiency, making it difficult to make up the acreage.

Paddy too trails

Mustard acreage has continued its march through the season ahead of the year-ago period every week and now reached 95.23 lh as of December 22, up by 2 per cent from 93.46 lh a year ago. All rabi oilseeds acreage has been reported to be at 102.38 lh, higher from 102.21 lh a year ago, in which groundnut area is down by 87,000 hectares at 3.12 lh. Though groundnut is a kharif crop, it is also grown in about 7 lh during winter, mainly in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Paddy acreage reached 12.67 lh as against 14.04 lh a year ago and the maximum area has been reported from Tamil Nadu. The normal area under winter paddy is 52.5 lh and the government expects to achieve normal area or more.

In coarse cereals, the sowing area has reached 46.01 lh, up by 3 per cent from 44.83 lh. Jowar acreage has been reported at 20.62 lh, lower from 20.71 lh, and maize acreage up by 6 per cent at 16.73 lh from 15.82 lh a year ago. Barley sowing is up 4 per cent at 8.01 lh against 7.71 lh a year ago.

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