The area under wheat during the on-going rabi season has been reported higher at 239.79 lakh hectares (lh) in top four producing States — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana until Friday in the on-going season against 237.37 lh in the year-ago period, up by 1 per cent. These four States together share 75 per cent of the country’s total wheat acreage.

After exceeding the season’s normal area of 307.32 lh last week, pan-India wheat acreage further narrowed the deficit to about 4 lh until Friday. Latest data show that wheat acreage has reached at 320.54 lh compared with 324.58 lh year-ago. The deficit was 2 per cent until December 22. Sowing of wheat with late varieties will continue till the first week of January, officials said.

The area sown under all rabi crops during 2023 reached 629.65 lh until December 29, which is over 97 per cent of the normal area of 648.33 lh. As it is still down by 3 per cent from 646.16 lh during the same period a year ago, the season may end with a deficit of 1-2 per cent mainly due to decline in pulses acreage, experts said.

Lentil up a tad

Rabi pulses acreage has reached 142.49 lh compared with 153.22 lh, down by 7 per cent as gram (chana) acreage has been consistently lower throughout. Lentil (masur) has improved to 18.68 lh, a tad higher from 18.02 lh year-ago. The sowing area of major rabi pulse gram is down by 8 per cent at 97.05 lh from 105.8 lh. So far, 96 per cent of normal area of 100.92 lh under gram has been covered.

Mustard acreage continued its march ahead throughout the season to 97.29 lh as of December 29, up 2 per cent from 95.63 lh in the corresponding period last year. All rabi oilseeds acreage has been reported at 104.96 lh, higher from 105.15 lh a year ago, in which groundnut area is down by 1.02 lh at 3.32 lh. Though groundnut is a kharif crop, it is also grown on about 7 lh during winter, mainly in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Paddy acreage slips

Paddy acreage reached 14.36 lh against 16.57 lh year-ago and maximum area has been reported from Tamil Nadu at 10.45 lh. 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 47.29 lh, up by 1 per cent from 46.64 lh. Jowar acreage has been reported at 21.04 lh, lower from 21.19 lh and maize reached a tad higher with area of 17.53 lh against 17.51 lh year-ago. Barley sowing is up 9 per cent at 8.01 lh against 7.32 lh year-ago.

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