Rabi sowing crosses 400 lh

A significant increase in wheat planting reported from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan this week has helped overall rabi sowing to surpass the area covered during the corresponding week last year, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday. As against 413 lakh hectares (LH) sown in the same week in the previous year, farmers across the country covered 418 lh, an increase of 1.24 per cent year-on-year.

While Madhya Pradesh planted wheat on 47.7 lh, nearly 16 per cent more than 41 lh in the same week in 2018-19, Rajasthan reported it has nearly 25 lh under wheat cultivation as compared to 21 lh y-o-y. At 30.85 lh , Punjab has nearly 2.5 lh less under wheat as compared to the same week last year.

The sowing of gram and masoor continues to lag behind, pushing the total pulses area down by 6 per cent y-o-y.

While the area under gram this week was 71.77 lh , about 6.23 per cent lower than 76.54 lhin the the corresponding week in 2018-19. At 12.12 lh , masoor acreage is 10 per cent lower than that in the same week last year.

Pulses lag

Much of the drop in the pulses area was reported from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the predominant pulses-growing States. The area under pulses is 105 lhas against 112 lh in the same week last year.

The sowing of oilseeds is down by a marginal 1.58 per cent as compared to the corresponding week last year, mainly because of a marginal drop in mustard cultivation.

This is despite Rajasthan, the main mustard growing State reporting a higher area as compared to the same period last year. A rally in jowar planting, which saw an additional area of 3 lh over the previous year's 18 lh, has helped coarse cereals report a 9 per cent increase in area. Barley too was sown on an area higher than that in the same week last year, while maize acreage is down 10 per cent in the same period. Much of the increase in coarse cereals cultivation was reported from Maharashtra.

A spurt in rice planting in Tamil Nadu has pulled up the total area under rabi rice in the country by 20 per cent to over 10 lh.

Meanwhile, water storage in most water bodies in the country is at a comfortable level. According to the Central Water Commission, which monitors 120 reservoirs in the country, these water bodies have a cumulative storage of 145.55 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water, which is 45 per cent more than the 100.22 BCM in the same week last year.