The area under rabi crops during the current crop year (July 2023-June 2024) at 654.89 lakh hectares (lh) until January 5 is 1 per cent more than the normal area of 648.33 lh. It is still down by 1 per cent from 663.07 lh during the corresponding period a year ago, but the gap has been narrowed as until last week the deficit was higher, potentially helping the country to have a bumper harvest even if a tad lower from last year.
Wheat acreage has considerably improved in the past month from a 5 per cent decline until December 1 to just a tad below the year-ago level now. The latest data show the acreage reached 331.7 lh compared with 331.89 lh a year ago, which is lower by about 19,000 hectares. However, higher area coverage has been reported from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Winter-grown pulses’ acreage is 148.18 lh compared with 156.15 lh, down by 5 per cent as gram (chana) acreage dropped. The sowing area of the major rabi pulse chana is down by 7 per cent to 100.12 lh from 107.65 lh, but lentils rose by 5 per cent at 19.09 lh from 18.2 lh.
Mustard acreage up
In coarse cereals, the sowing area has reached 49.82 lh, up by 3 per cent from 48.31 lh. Jowar acreage has been reported at 22 lh, up by 2 per cent from 21.52 lh and the maize acreage is up by 1 per cent at 18.99 lh from 18.76 lh a year ago. Barley sowing is also up at 8.09 lh against 7.4 lh a year ago.
Higher sowing of mustard has helped the overall oilseeds sowing look comfortable. Mustard acreage has already exceeded the normal area of 73.06 lh and reached 98.86 lh, 2 per cent more than 96.71 lh in the corresponding period of 2022-23. All rabi oilseeds acreage has been reported to be at 107.21 lh, up from 106.71 lh in the year-ago period, in which groundnut area is down by 19 per cent at 3.73 lh from 4.62 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 17.98 lh against 20.02 lh in the year-ago period and a maximum area of 11.12 lh has been reported from Tamil Nadu.