Wheat acreage continues to trail during the oncoming rabi season sowing. The area under wheat was down by 11.4 per cent at 48.51 lakh hectares (lh) compared with 54.73 lh a year ago. A higher acreage can boost the chances of achieving the government target of 114 million tonnes (mt) for the current season when a shorter than normal winter has been predicted.

Preliminary data, compiled from State governments and other sources, show higher acreage under mustard, masur (lentil) and jowar (sorghum). The total area under all rabi crops has reached 189.27 lh as of November 10 against 193.27 lh in the year-ago period, down by 2.1 per cent.

“There is a slight delay in paddy harvest in some places in Punjab and Haryana compared to last year due to re-sowing after floods affected those areas. Some farmers had gone for very short-duration vegetable crops after flood water receded as there was no time to take regular crops and those areas will be cleared for wheat planting by this month-end,” said a senior official. It is expected that planting will be nearly completed by November 25 in major wheat-growing areas of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan.

Higher cane SAP

In Uttar Pradesh, in some areas where farmers go for wheat after sugarcane may be delayed as crushing is yet to pick up steam, experts said. As the State government has announced a higher State Advised Price (SAP) for sugarcane by raising it by ₹25/quintal, the field will be cleared there also for the next planting.

In the 10 reservoirs in the northern region in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, the storage level was 76 per cent of their combined storage capacity of 19.663 billion cubic meters (BCM) as of November 9, whereas it was 84 per cent in the year-ago period. The average storage of last ten years as on October 9 is 77 per cent of capacity.

Under all pulses, 58.5 lh has been covered compared with 57.71 lh a year ago as the acreage of lentil (masur) is up by 17.1 per cent at 7.74 lh from 6.61 lh. But the sowing area under chana (gram) is down a tad at 41.44 lh from 41.97 lh. Total pulses acreage in Rajasthan has been reported at 12.75 lh, 18.31 lh in Madhya Pradesh, 9.53 lh in Uttar Pradesh, 7.22 lh in Karnataka, 5.32 lh in Maharashtra, 1.33 lh in Chhattisgarh and 1.25 lh in Tamil Nadu.

Oilseeds down a tad

In coarse cereals and Shree Anna, the covered area is 15.65 lh, up by 16.9 per cent from 13.39 lh. Maharashtra reported 7.82 lh, Tamil Nadu 2.19 lh and Karnataka 3.67 lh under coarse cereals including jowar and maize. Jowar acreage has been reported at 11.6 lh, up by 39.6 per cent from 8.31 lh, mainly contributed by Maharashtra which received scanty rainfall in monsoon season.

The sowing under all winter-grown oilseeds has reached 59.67 lh, a tad lower from 60.39 lh year-ago. But, mustard acreage at 57.16 lh is almost at par with 56.87 lh in the corresponding period in 2022. Total area under all oilseeds reached 29.33 lh in Rajasthan, 14.54 lh in Uttar Pradesh, 10.87 lh in Madhya Pradesh, 1.78 lh in West Bengal and 0.78 lh in Karnataka.

Out of 6.94 lh area coverage under winter paddy, as against 7.06 lh year-ago, the maximum area has been reported in Tamil Nadu at 6.46 lh followed by Kerala at 0.27 lh.

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