According to the latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday, the area sown with wheat, the main rabi crop, was down 1.71 percent at 333.97 lakh hectares so far in the ongoing 2021-22 rabi season due to less coverage in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh. Rabi (winter) crops such as wheat are planted in October and harvested in April.
In the previous year, wheat was planted on 339.81 lakh hectares. According to the data, the area sown to wheat in Uttar Pradesh was reduced by 3.11 lakh hectares, 1.35 lakh hectares in Haryana, 1.20 lakh hectares in Maharashtra, and 1.14 lakh hectares in Madhya Pradesh.
Coverage of wheat was lower in Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand as well in the said period.
In the same period, however, the higher area under wheat was reported from Rajasthan (1.96 lakh hectares), Bihar (0.68 lakh hectares), Chhattisgarh (0.09 lakh hectares), and Assam (0.01 lakh hectares), according to the data.
So far, much of the wheat sowing has been completed. With the exception of oilseeds, there was marginally less coverage in the area under wheat, rice, pulses, and coarse-cum-Nutri cereals as of December 7 of the current rabi season.
In fact, the area under oilseeds increased to 98.85 lakh hectares as of December 7 this rabi season, up from 81.66 lakh hectares the previous year. In the same period, rapeseed and mustard seed coverage accounted for 89.71 lakh hectares.
This is a good sign considering the country's heavy dependence on imports for edible oils.
In the case of pulses, coverage has remained constant at 156.23 lakh hectares so far this rabi season, compared to 157.75 lakh hectares the previous year. In the same period, gram coverage stood at 109.44 lakh hectares.
Rice acreage was also lower this rabi season, at 16.44 lakh hectares as of December 7, compared to 18.69 lakh hectares the previous year. The coverage of coarse-cum-Nutri cereals was also slightly lower, at 46.68 lakh hectares as opposed to 48.32 lakh hectares during the same period, according to the data.
