Area under rabi crops, such as wheat, pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals, was down 2.5% on year on Friday, even as 97% of the sowing was complete. A 7% fall in sowing of pulses, late harvesting of paddy and diversion to other crops are seen to be the reasons for the overall decline in winter crop area.
According to data from the agriculture ministry, wheat, the main rabi crop, is sown in 32.05 million hectare (MHa), a drop of only 1.2% from last year.
The total area under all winter-sown crops was 62.9 MHa, a drop of 2.5% compared with the previous year. The five-year average rabi crop area is 64.8 Mha.
“The prospect of rabi crops look promising as per feedback received from the states,” the official said. Officials said that an assessment of the rabi crop output would be carried out by the end of next month.
The pulses — gram, masoor and urad — sown area in mostly Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh has so far lagged behind by 7% at 14.24 MHa.
In some states, less area coverage in pulses is due to factors including late harvesting of kharif crops, diversion to other crops, deficit soil moisture and delayed harvesting of paddy, an official said.
However area under oilseeds is marginally up at 10.49 MHa on year.
In case of mustard, the key oilseed crop sowing has been up 33% at 9.72 MHa compared with the normal sown area of 7.3 Mha. More than normal area coverage has already been achieved especially in case of mustard, according to an official note.
In 1.43 MHa, rice has been sown in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, 13% lower than last year.
The government has set a higher wheat production target of a record 114 million tonne (MT) for the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) against an estimated output of 110.5 MT in 2022-23.
The government has set marginally higher foodgrains production targets of 332 MT for 2023-24 crop year, out of which rabi season will contribute 161.2 MT. The food grains production in 2022-23 was estimated at 329.6 MT.
The government has set a target to bring around 60% of the total wheat area under the climate-resistant varieties for dealing with extreme climatic conditions such as the heatwave and rainfall witnessed just prior to harvesting of crops in the last two years.
Meanwhile, water levels in India’s 150 key reservoirs on Thursday had fallen sharply to 20% below last year’s level due to deficient southwest monsoon rainfall and sluggish progress of north-eastern monsoon.
The water levels in these dams were 6% below the last 10-year average.